Threading the Timelines
by Secret Nerd Princess
Summary: Future Lucy and Wyatt step out of the Lifeboat and throw down the gauntlet. The Time Team traverses their own timelines, facing personal tragedy and forbidden colors, in an effort to save one of their own. Along they way, Lucy, Flynn, and Wyatt discover heartbreaking secrets about their pasts destined to change their futures. Garcy (romance) Lyatt (friendship)
1. Prologue

_August 23, 2014_

"Hello? Flynn?" A sharp staccato of car horns greeted her as she answered the phone.

"Pack what you can in the next five minutes and be ready to run." His voice came over the speaker, frantic, his accent thickened from his evident fear.

A muttered curse followed squealing tires and Lucy felt her heart hitch in her chest. "Slow down before you get yourself killed."

"There's no time! Luc, please, I beg you." A shiver trailed down her neck as his voice dropped, barely audible above the traffic. "It's Rittenhouse. They're coming for us."

Lucy's eyes darted to the windows. "What? How?"

"I'll explain later, but right now we need to move."

She sprinted into motion heading towards their bedroom. "How far away are you?"

"I'm at the grocery on 3rd...maybe three, four minutes tops. Do you remember the combo?"

She jumped on the bed, pulled the Monet from the wall, and spun the dial on the hidden safe.

"Yes."

The passports and cash went in the bag by the bed, kept there for just such an occasion. She strapped on one gun, grabbed the other for Flynn, and shoved the keys to the getaway vehicle parked and waiting in a nearby abandoned building in her pocket..

"I'll keep you safe, I promise," his words seemed to plead with the universe.

She stifled a hiccupped cry. "I know, Cia."

Crouching down, she pulled the backpack filled with necessities from the back corner of the closet, then stood and scanned the room. Their wedding photo from the little Croatian chapel and the necklace he'd given her on their first Christmas together went gently into the bag. He'd want the picture of them in the redwoods and his grandfather's watch, and those items joined the rest of what she could save from their lives, packed into two nondescript backpacks.

He took in a deep relieved breath. "I'm pulling in now, I'll be right in." The car screeched into the driveway.

She took one last look around the bedroom they'd shared for years and jogged to meet him at the door. She'd never look back as long as she had him. "I love you, Garcia. Forever."

"And always, my Lucia. Always." She heard his key turning in the lock and slid to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, ready to run, with this man, to the ends of the earth if necessary.

Flynn opened the door and stepped into the house, cell phone pressed desperately to his ear for some unknown reason. A recorded message informed him that the number he had dialed was not in service. He stopped and looked around, discombobulated, his heart searching for something he could not name.

Shaking his head, he tossed his keys into the waiting dish by the door and called out, "Lorena? Iris? Where are my girls?"

 _~*~*~*~_  
 _October 3, 1976_

Emma sat rigid in the office of a young, and handsome she happened to notice, Benjamin Cahill.

"You'll ensure she'll never take that job at Oberlin? That she'll follow in her mother's footsteps and teach at Stanford?"

He crossed one leg over the other and stared her down. "It's for Rittenhouse?" She nodded, never glancing away. "But you won't tell me why this is all so important? That I keep my as yet unborn and thus unknown daughter from taking a job at some obscure university."

"No, I can't, unfortunately. Just know that it's necessary to our survival." Well, it wasn't exactly a lie. They couldn't risk those two fighting together, they'd make a formidable team. But her animus featured a bit of a personal nature, she could admit to herself.

"Consider it done." A cold smile crept across his features. "For Rittenhouse."

Emma wondered briefly if she'd made a deal with the devil. Probably, but that was tomorrow's problem. Who knew what loose ends she'd have to tie up in 2014. No matter, as long as Lucy's father held up his end of the bargain, she'd deal with whatever came at her.

 _~*~*~*~_  
 _August 23, 2014_

Lucy stood on stage, momentarily confused, lost, and terrified. A sea of faces stared back as she searched her thoughts.

"What would happen if, say, the Hindenburg never caught fire?" The feeling of wrongness eased away and she continued, " How would the world change if those thirty-seven people never died? How would the present find itself irrevocably altered? That is the importance of history."


	2. Chapter One

_March 19, 2023_

Wyatt studied the features of the woman he'd come to love over their seven years spent fighting Rittenhouse agents hell bent on manipulating the centuries of history. He knew, of all of them, this was the mission she'd feared since that night on a deserted country road. The decision, one of the hardest she'd ever made. But everything hinged on it. Not just Rufus or Lucy, but the entire team and the history they'd written as a team.

If she chose to step into the Lifeboat for this mission, she'd set into motion a series of events that would change her into the woman that stood determined, but wearing an armor of her sadness in front of him.

"It's time," she said, quiet and resigned.

He wrapped his arms around her. "We don't have to, we can take our chances stopping it ourselves. We don't need to risk them." Lucy circled around in his arms and faced him. "We've changed history before. We could do it again."

Snuggling her head into his neck she whispered, "No, I can't risk losing you too and we both know what needs to be done to save Rufus." He felt a tear slide down the between her cheek and his neck. "He's always been our glue."

"Will it be too hard to see him again?" He lifted her face so he could really see her. "You'll only have one more time after this."

She blinked and tears crested her lids, spilling openly. "I still miss him."

"I know." Holding her tighter, he tried to give her as much of his strength as he could.

Jiya popped her head out of the Lifeboat. "You guys ready to go save Rufus or what?"

Lucy chuckled, resolute despite the tears she wiped from her face and what awaited them. "Let's go."

 _~*~*~*~  
May 13, 2018_

Lucy blinked as a scruffy, obviously from the future, Wyatt stepped out of an upgraded Lifeboat. "Well, what are you waiting on?"

"You guys wanna get Rufus back or what?" A future Lucy, looking more like Lara Croft than the historian ever thought possible, appeared after Wyatt.

"I'm definitely going crazy," she said to no one in particular.

Flynn slipped up to stand at her right. "Then we're all going crazy, my dear."

Lucy caught a flicker of something on her future face, but ignored it in favor of a much more pressing concern. "How are you two here? With us. In our timeline. I mean, shouldn't the universe be imploding or something?" She whirled around looking to Rufus for the answer, an automatic response. Not now, she chastised her heart.

Jiya poked her head out of the time machine as Lara Lucy explained, "We've got a workaround."

As the future team walked one by one down the stairs, the group took a collective step back. Both Wyatt and Flynn tried to maneuver to shield her, but while they shared a glare, she shimmied in between them to face her future self.

"Really guys, now is not the time." Both of the Lucy's said in unison.

The group let out a bit of nervous laughter, but it was enough. Unspoken relief rippled through them and they got down to business. As one, they moved to the table that served for everything from family meals, few and far between though they were, and planning with too many maps and pens.

Scruffy, future Wyatt began, "Turns out human bodies emit a kind of energy that the universe recognizes as you, the essence of you if reduced to individual molecules."

"Rufus was working on something like this before he…" Jiya's voice broke.

Jiya looked at the younger version of herself, "Yes, it's exactly what he was working on." She withdrew four hi-tech syringes and four tiny boxes. "Each of these will hold one of these nanochips that, once inserted, will emit a new signature, tricking the timeline into thinking you are...well, not you anymore. It's up to you now, Jiya. You have to finish his work so you can save him."

Our Jiya reached for the syringes and boxes and began to study the new tech. "No problem."

Lara Lucy continued, "That'll only work for one return trip into your own timeline. Meaning, you could go back to the Hindenburg and change history back to what it was before, but if you failed, you couldn't go back a third time."

"What's to stop us from sending the team back to every time they've ever been and changing things?" The wheels of Mason's brain rolled through the possibilities.

"You could," future Jiya explained, "but the timelines might become intrinsically tangled. We have no idea how that could affect everything. We might end up like that Doctor Who episode, living every moment in time, all at once."

Only Jiya's present tense self got the reference and it brought a small smile to her lips. "Are we successful? Do we save him?" The normal joyful tenor to her words gone in her grief, but Lucy could see the hope she tried to keep from bursting out.

"Of course we do," Lucy squeezed Jiya's hand not even looking to her future self for confirmation. They would never return to give them hope if they failed. They'd find another way.

She gave her friend a quick hug and turned to face the future group. "How did you figure all this out anyway?"

Wyatt chuckled. "Well, we knew that we'd solved the problem since we'd already lived the end result-"

Jiya stopped him, "But the rest is up to you. Obviously, we can't risk telling you too much."

Our Jiya nodded along, Wyatt and Flynn looked confused, but not concerned. They'd figure it out. Their future selves were proof enough. Lucy knew them, she trusted each of them with her life.

Lara Lucy interrupted her mental pep talk. "We haven't got that long. We have places we need to be as well. We have our own part to play in this mission."

"So that's it?" Unscruffy Wyatt asked, folding his arms over his chest. "You show up, hand us some tech, and disappear into our future?"

Flynn chimed in, "You know how much I hate to agree with Wyatt, especially given that there are currently two of him and only one of me, but he makes a good point. For all the talk about tangled timelines, there's gotta be more to it than that."

Future Lucy & Wyatt shared a look and she nodded. "There is and the answer is something the three of you need to figure out," future Lucy answered glancing over Lucy, Wyatt, and Flynn.

"Cryptic much?" She retorted, her patience wearing a little thin. It'd been a long few days and she still needed to have a talk with Flynn before they even tackled any new mission. It hadn't escaped her notice that her heart skipped a beat with Flynn, back in San Francisco. Between Wyatt and Jessica, and now with Flynn, her feelings were a jumble. She could admit that things had changed between them, but how much?

Lara Lucy's responding smile edged toward sadness that she quickly wiped from her face.

"The only thing we can tell you is that in between Harriet Tubman and San Francisco, Emma took another trip. My memory gets fuzzy after that. It's the universe protecting the timeline, we think. It will clear once we all," she gestured to their future versions, "get farther away from you guys. What we know for sure is that you, Wyatt, and Flynn all experienced life-altering events in your past-"

"Wait, hold on." Lucy could feel a question tickling at the edge of her consciousness. She tugged a little harder on the mental string. "So how did Emma get this technology to go back herself?"

"We had a breach." Scruffy Wyatt bit out, anger lacing his tone. "Suffice it to say, the Emma that you're facing has access to the same history you do."

"Okay, how will we know where to look for her?" she asked her older self.

"We know she only took one trip, so all we know is that the Emma we know will be there. I'm sorry we can't be of more help. The universe still has rules we can't work around."

"Which brings us to our last warning." Future Wyatt looked right at Flynn. "Anybody who died in your original timeline cannot be saved. I'm sorry. The only one you can save is Rufus, because technically he hasn't been killed yet by Emma in her timeline. Therefore his future is still in flux. End Emma before she leaves and you save Rufus."

"What you're not saying is this is not the way to save my wife and daughter." Flynn leaned against the sink, his body tense despite his relaxed posture.

"No, you can't. Neither can I," the older Wyatt responded, his lips tight.

Future Jiya jumped in, "You can't act to change something you've already lived. There's no way to rewrite that memory from the inside, so to speak. You can stop something from ever happening at all, but you can't stop it once it's in motion. Even if you stay behind, and send Wyatt and Lucy instead, they won't be able to succeed because them being there at all depends on you having that memory. Once they save your wife and child, you, in the present, no longer remember losing them. So who asked Wyatt and Lucy to go in the first place? Ergo, they die again. We're more like voyeurs when we travel in our own timelines."

"It's why we can't just go back to San Francisco," our Jiya said.

"Exactly, they can only be saved if it's the Emma from your timeline who killed them. She acts kind of like a key into any given situation. Because she's creating a present in the past."

Lara Lucy clarified. "It's how we narrowed down the possible events. All of the major incidents in your lives have some kind of static around them. Wyatt has no idea how his wife died. When he tried to change it, by keeping the killer from being born, nothing changed. With Flynn, he remembers the sound of bullets, but never found his family's killers. And you, Lucy, can't remember anything past the accident where you almost drowned.. One of these memories has been altered by Emma, the others simply remain unsolved."

Silence descended and Lucy felt something heavy settle over her shoulders. She couldn't name it and looked to her future self for answers only she could give. Lara Lucy wouldn't make eye contact, though for a moment she looked like she was about to say something before she changed her mind, calling out instead to Scruffy Wyatt.

"We should go." He nodded to her and the group followed as they headed back to the upgraded Lifeboat.

Jiya climbed in first to get begin the departure procedure. Future Wyatt stopped one foot on the stair and shared some unspoken masculine thing with both his past self and Flynn before following behind her.

She, herself, present Lucy, man she was getting confused with the different versions, blew out an exasperated breath and asked Lara Lucy, "Do they ever change? Get it out of their system?" Her older self only smiled in response. "Alright, do I at least ever get used to it?"

"No, you never do."

Jiya popped her head back out. "Hey! I forgot to mention, you should probably avoid any kind of active contact with your past self. What with them not knowing about time travel and all. And you'll notice none of us touched any of our past selves. That's for the best if you can't avoid a run-in. We're not sure what would happen. Maybe nothing, but Doctor Who warns against it. So, err on the side of caution." She waved to the group one last time and disappeared into the machine.

Lucy studied her future self one last time, watched the emotions play across her face before she took the last step into the Lifeboat. She said simply, "You've got this." And with one last glance to Flynn, she turned and the door closed behind her.

With that and the usual accompanying gust of wind, their present became their future once again.


	3. Chapter Two

_May 13, 2018_

"Alright team, it's all hands on deck. We can and will fix this. We will not lose anyone. Jiya, I hate to ask this of you, but we need you on Rufus' work." Agent Christopher softened her voice. "Can you handle this? We'll work around anything you need."

She squared her shoulders. "No, I'm good. If anyone can decipher Rufus-speak, it's me. Give me space."

Jiya crossed to the computers and Agent Christopher pointed at Mason. The older man straightened. "You. Back up Jiya. I don't care if she needs coffee, you get it. You are her right hand. Don't screw this up." He nodded. The sometimes genius, sometimes fool had come so far in the last few months. One might say he'd become dependable.

Turning to her right, she faced Wyatt, "I'm sorry, but you need to start thinking of Jessica as a Rittenhouse agent. Her presence alters the landscape. Bringing Rufus home is the priority. We're not risking him for anyone. Other than that, I want you and Flynn loaded for bear." She paused, giving him time to tap out if necessary. "You good?"

"Five by five, ma'am." He was having one hell of a week, but he was their soldier. There'd be time to fall apart later.

"I want everyone resting within two hours. Jiya, that includes you." Jiya completely ignored her, not surprising considering the situation.

"After everyone's slept, we'll regroup. In the morning, Lucy, you and Wyatt get with Flynn and make a game plan."

Lucy stared at the empty space left behind by the departure of the upgraded Lifeboat. "Yes. Of course."

Wyatt sat at the table, eyes downcast, Flynn behind him leaning against the edge of the sink. Both men studied their historian without actually looking at her.

Denise worried, of course she did. This mission could destroy everything she'd so carefully built. More than that, it could destroy her people. Family, more like, but they were all her people. Even, heaven help her, Flynn, earning his place without anyone actually noticing. Glancing over all of them, they appeared beaten. Dark circles lined their eyes, their shoulders hunched over. Sleep alone wouldn't help that.

"Hey, guys, listen up. All of you, eyes on me." They turned as one. Like zombies. Too far gone to care. This would never do. "I get it. We thought we'd seen the worst of it. You've fought Nazis and faced angry mobs. You've been shot and stabbed and almost killed too many times to count. You given so much and history demands more. Losing Rufus-" she sucked in grief-filled air. "That's not something we can tolerate. Not now, not yesterday, not tomorrow. Rufus is coming home. And you are the only team I'd ever trust with this mission."

She took one last look around. "Seriously, all of you, try to get some sleep." She nodded to each of them and headed towards the quarters she kept for the rare times she stayed in the bunker. As she walked away, she watched as they all fell back into their own sadness. Tonight was no time to leave the team. Things would hopefully look better in the morning, but for now, it was wait and see. Jiya would finish Rufus' work and figure out how to make those nanochips work. Wyatt and Lucy would come up with the plan, and Flynn would fill in the gaps when it all fell apart. She trusted them. They'd bring him home.

* * *

"Lucy…" Wyatt stood behind her, hovering. "Are you okay?"

The question seemed ridiculous. Throwing up her hands, she began to pace. "I have absolutely no idea how to answer that question. Are we talking about losing Rufus? My mother? Jessica being Rittenhouse? You and me? Future you and me looking all Mad Max? Which specific event in the last two days would you like to talk about? Because the only answer I can give is, I'm exhausted and I just need my friend Wyatt back."

A tentative touch on her arm caused her to stop and turn to him. "You know we won't fail, right? I promise, Rufus'll be back making movie references before you know it." His arm slipped over her shoulder and she leaned into him. "If a friend is what you need, I'm here."

"I didn't mean to lash out at you. I really am sorry about Jessica, and I'm sorry I haven't told you that yet. Maybe she'll come around." She offered him a hopeful smile. "I just don't even know how to begin to make sense of any of this and it's our friend whose life is hanging in the balance. I don't know how we do this without him. Rufus keeps us grounded, honest. He's the heart of the team, Wyatt. What could we become without him?" She was thinking of their future selves.

"We're still fighting," he nudged her, "even years down the road we're all still together. We'll succeed."

Wyatt's blue eyes drew her back to the here and now, away from the fact that Rufus was not with their future selves. Probably protecting the timeline, but still it unnerved her.

"We have to." They'd left their heart in San Francisco.

* * *

Flynn watched as Lucy stared at the empty space long after the upgraded Lifeboat disappeared. He wanted to reach out to her, but if it hadn't been obvious before that Lucy and Wyatt belonged together, seeing the two of them still fighting Rittenhouse after all the intervening years erased any of his doubts. Wyatt's interruption in San Francisco seemed a blessing now. He watched as Wyatt joined her and Flynn retreated to his small section of the bunker, to his books and solitude. The words that clawed for freedom in the past, settled back into hiding, a secret he'd never explore.

Leaning back on his cot, head cradled in his hands, Flynn thought of everything he and Lucy shared. Remembered the frustration of her words, the flush of her cheeks as she fought him to save Rittenhouse's son. She saved two people that night with her belief that he could be something better. So he tried. For her. It took awhile, he was blinded by revenge.

Even as enemies, Flynn felt drawn to her, a magnetism he couldn't explain. From the very first, talking to her as the Hindenburg burned in the background, he wanted to pull her in, to protect her even as he threatened her life. The fact that she thought him the enemy needled him, but he had no one to blame but himself. Back then, he stormed through the battlefield sure that his bloody path was the only way to end Rittenhouse once and for all. Lucy's disgust of him just another casualty in a war he never intended to walk away from.

1954 changed all of it. What if it led you to me? A simple question that unlocked the man he'd hidden behind righteous vengeance. Then the way she asked Wyatt, Do you trust me? Flynn wanted to earn her trust, her respect. He'd do anything to show her the man buried beneath layers of anger, guilt, and grief, the man he was before Rittenhouse murdered his family.

He'd gone to jail to prove he wanted to change. He had contacts, he could have arranged his escape at any time, but he wanted to work with Lucy, not against her. When they broke him out and brought him into the bunker, Flynn thought for sure he was on the right track. Even if she never loved him, if she trusted him, that would be enough.

A light knock interrupted his musing. "Flynn?" Lucy's voice lilted into his room. He tamped down the hope that bloomed within him. The night she came to his room, he'd felt more alive than he had since his wife died. They'd shared nothing more than stories and the bottle of vodka.

He rose and cracked open the door, leaning against the frame.

"What's up?" he asked, hiding the tremor in his voice the best he could. "Did the Mothership jump? I didn't hear the alarm."

Staring down, she studied her stockinged feet. "May I come in?"

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Flynn swallowed hard, wanting nothing more than to open that door, to convince her to give life with him a chance, but he couldn't fight fate.

"Please? I don't want to be alone." Her small frame sagged against the wall, but he wouldn't give in. He wished he wanted nothing more than friendship. She deserved better.

He left his body blocking the door, pretending nonchalance. "Agent Christopher said we should rest."

"You know what? That's a lie."

That caught him off guard. "Wait. What's a lie?"

She finally looked up at him and her eyes seemed to beg for understanding. "It's not just that I don't want to be alone. I want to be here. With you."

All the unsaid words jammed inside him. How could he refuse her? He opened the door.

Lucy looked around the small space. The first night she spent here, the room felt sparse, all metal and rust, but it didn't matter. She'd come for Flynn's company, the one person who wouldn't make her talk about everything with Wyatt. But now, the room beckoned her with its coziness and something else she couldn't name. Slipping down into a sitting position on the floor, she leaned her head back against his cot and closed her eyes. Flynn picked up whatever book currently occupied his interest and Lucy lost herself in how to start now that she was here.

Her world had shifted around her. Flynn wasn't the same man. She wasn't the same woman. She'd seen too much, lost too much. She let the silence settle around them as she pictured every time she'd seen glimpses under his armor. Did it start with Watergate? Or were there echoes of the man he became that she missed. She'd never forget 1954 when she convinced him to work with them. There was a spark even then. But how could she ever forgive him for the body count he left in his wake? All the times he tried to kill them. For the Hindenburg. For Benedict Arnold. For Abraham Lincoln.

But they'd also misjudged him. Could she have gotten through to him earlier if she'd known the truth about Rittenhouse? If Flynn had given the journal to her sooner? Would she have trusted her own words? Trusted him? Rittenhouse might not have the Mothership now if they-

He interrupted her tumbling thoughts.. "Lucy, why did you come here?"

Lucy opened her eyes to see Flynn hunched over his knees, book forgotten in one dangling hand. She answered honestly. "I don't know when it happened, but you've become my port in the storm. Don't ask me to explain it. I don't think I could."

He set down the book he clutched and slid to the floor. Her eyes searched his face and he felt exposed. "I never wanted us to be enemies. Vengeance blinded me. I saw nothing but the blood of my wife and child. Great streaks of it as I ran from my house that night. Your journal brought me back, Lucy. The first time I read it I was simply trying to wrap my brain around it. But the more I read it, the more I wanted to understand the mysterious woman who appeared out of the ether to change the entire course of my life. And then with every interaction we shared, I'd see a spark of the Lucy I'd come to know first through her words. You altered me by increments. Looking back, I'd change it all if I could. In the end...I couldn't...couldn't bring myself to kill any of you. I didn't know why back then."

"And now?"

He searched her expression and saw all the hope that thrived within her. Even in this awful time, she still had hope.

He only allowed himself to hope for one thing. "The only thing I ask of my life now is that I go to my grave having earned your forgiveness."

Lucy scooted up on her knees, closing the distance between them by a fraction. "Is that all?"  
Those three words threatened to undo him.

Is that all?

It was most definitely not all. He wanted to tell her everything about his life; wanted her to really know him. He wanted take her face in his hands, trace his fingers over her lips. To kiss her like he'd wanted to since they stood facing each other surrounded by flames. He wanted to protect her and love her and stand by her side against whatever came at them.

His hands fidgeted in his lap, useless. "I'm broken, Lucy. Everything I did to save my wife and child. Everything I did to the team. To you. Nothing can ever redeem that."

"I gave you my journal. I'm the one who set you on your path. And I did it with full knowledge of what would happen." Lucy inched closer and he found it harder to breathe. "Look at me, please, Flynn."

He raised his eyes, unsure, and she ran her fingers over his stubbled jaw. "I have no delusions about who you are, Flynn. We've been on this ride for two years now. However, you are also not the man you were."

"You got hit because I antagonized Wyatt." Immediately after he'd known he was wrong. But it didn't matter, no justification could ever make it right. "And then, I wasn't there to stop Emma." He reached up, brushing her cheekbone, just under the bruise around her left eye.

"You got shot and you still came for me." She edged closer. "What did you want to tell me in San Francisco?"

He couldn't breathe, her fingers flitted across his face like butterflies, light almost not there, leaving electricity in the wake of every touch.

Flynn leaned into her hand, needing to remember this feeling. He released his pent-up breath. "If only…" Just this once, maybe. Once and he would walk away.

"Not if only, say it." Lucy pleaded with him. He covered her hand with his. One last confession. Three more words. "Please, Garcia."

His name whispered by her-he unraveled. Pulled her closer with his one good arm and whispered against her lips, "I love you."

She closed the final distance. His lips tentative against hers, at first. Winding her fingers through his hair, his hand glided up her back, his fingers brushing the back of her neck. The scent of him surrounded her as his lips molded to hers. Her heart hammered against her chest. This. She needed this. Him. Flynn.

He broke their kiss and bent his forehead to hers. He should've known better, one kiss would never be enough. "I should ask you to leave, but I'm too selfish. I want the possibility of us, but I'm not good like Wyatt." She pulled away and stood, turning her back against his words. She felt him stand behind her. "I've killed before and I'd do it again without blinking if it meant keeping you safe. I'd be right by your side, until the end, even if it meant my life. Because I don't know what I'd become if I lost you. You should leave, now. Pursue that future that showed up on our doorstep today. Wyatt is your fate, not me."

She spun around and found him, fingers clenching and unclenching as if his hands had lost their home.

"What if that's not what I want?" She reached for him and he backed up. "Fuck fate!"

Flynn couldn't help the laughter that burst out of him.

Lucy flung her hands in the air. "That's right, I cursed. Because I'm not all Polly-Sunshine and I'm sick of being told what I should want. I want you, Garcia Flynn. I don't know why, but I don't want to fight it anymore. So if you want me to leave, you're going to have to make me."

She literally plopped down on his cot and crossed her arms over her chest, the jutt of her chin daring him to move her. Instead, he sat down next to her and peeled one of her hands away from her chest, fingers threading through hers.

He'd have to let her go eventually, but for now, this would be enough. He pulled her much smaller frame closer and she curled up her knees, snuggling into him. He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and leaned down.

"I'll show you I can be the man you believe me to be."

She tugged him down so that he lay behind her, smelling the mint and eucalyptus scent of her shampoo. For what felt like hours, he held her, content for the first time in so long. When her breath slowed, he disentangled their limbs and went to move to the chair, as he had when she passed out after their night of vodka.

"Please, stay...cia," her voice muffled, her words hazy from sleep. "...need to know...still be here…" she fell back to sleep mid-thought.

He fell back into place behind her. "Forever and always, my Lucia. My light against the darkness. Sleep, I will be here in the morning."


	4. Chapter Three

Jiya woke up in a panic, scattering a messy stack of papers and pens when she sat bolt upright, still in front of the computer. So much to do. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and felt the creases on her cheeks from passing out on her arms. She jiggled the mouse to rouse the computer, the math from last night flashing onto the screen. She'd studied the equations until they appeared double, until her eyes closed out of necessity.

What time was it? How long had she wasted? 7:23 am. She'd really only been unconscious for three hours, but it felt like a lifetime. She had to save Rufus. Her life stalled without him. She knew she should actually sleep, but couldn't bring herself to go back to the room they'd been sharing as of late. The cavern in her chest reopened and she bent over clutching her middle as if she could hold it all in.

No. She absolutely could not fall apart, too much depended on her. She shoved away from the desk, scraping the metal legs in a screech, and stalked into the kitchen. Coffee. Coffee would make it better. She needed to focus. Grabbing the grounds, she poured them into a filter without a thought to how much she used. She snatched a random mug off the shelf and focused on pulling herself together. As Jiya turned around to face the room she saw a leg sticking up from the uncomfortable brown couch.

Mason. She grabbed a second cup.

When the pot finished brewing, she poured two cups, cream and sugar for Mason, black for her, and moved into the living room. She knew the older man wouldn't leave her side until Rufus was back with them in the bunker where he belonged.

He woke when the smell of the coffee reached him, blinking several times before focusing on Jiya.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked as he sat up, reaching for the mug.

"A little. Not much." She set down her cup and tied her hair into a messy bun. They sat for a bit, drinking their coffee, waking up. "I'm stuck on this one set of equations."

Mason refocused on the present mid-sip. "Want me to take a gander?"

"Please. A fresh set of eyes would help. It's the ultrasonic waves. I can't figure out how to alter the frequency. How does the universe interpret us? What makes me me? Rufus got us so close." Another emotional shockwave rolled over her. No crying, not yet. "What if I can't do this? I'm no Rufus, he's been working with time travel for years, I've only ever been backup."

The crumpled and exhausted man bent one leg up onto the couch and turned to the dark haired woman holding back a tornado of anguish.

"You've always been far more than backup, Jiya. There's never been one day since you came into this crazy world of ours that you haven't been necessary. You catch things others don't. You see the missing pieces that fill in the cracks." He scooted over so he could touch her hand. "You are innocent and kind and brilliant, and the team might have failed so many times without you here."

A tear fell without permission. "Thank you, Mason. I know how much Rufus means to you." She scrubbed at her eyes, refusing to break. "I'm so afraid I won't be able to solve this without him and he'll be lost forever. I can't allow that. I just can't."

"Which is why you will. Solve this, I mean. I've watched you guys work together for years. You balance each other. You two are equal parts pop culture references and science. You communicate in numbers and fiction. You are his anchor in reality while he traverses the past, always bringing him and the team back home. You have his numbers, now you be you and fill in the rest."

Jiya closed the short distance between them and hugged him. "Should we do this then?"

* * *

Wyatt glared at the ceiling and replayed his time with Jessica since Rittenhouse brought her back from the dead, reexamining their interactions through the lens of Jessica's betrayal. As a soldier, he knew the value of sleep. He got a solid 4 hours. It would suffice. All of this was related, he knew it and that took precedence. Something didn't add up. Not the fact that he'd been fooled, the reason for that was obvious enough. The love of his life came back. Not even Lucy could stop him from blundering right into that situation.

No, there was something else at work here and he just had to figure out what. So he scrolled through his memories of this Jessica. How could Rittenhouse have known how bringing her back would play out? She might have already divorced him in the new timeline. They could've worked out their differences and been happy. Even raised as Rittenhouse, she might have betrayed them instead of him. They couldn't have known the results.

Then there was the brother. Why would Rittenhouse be stupid enough to draw attention to such a big change to Jessica's timeline? Of course he would notice. They raised Jessica to be loyal to them. She had to know the moment she brought up a formerly deceased brother that he'd become suspicious. Thus outing her as an agent and cutting off the flow of information she funneled to Rittenhouse.

So why do it? Why take that risk?

Obviously, they wanted to disrupt the team, but to what end? Jessica confessed that she was supposed to kill them, but couldn't. Which brought him back to the question of what history replaced the night Jessica originally died? He had no knowledge of the six years she remembered from the timeline that he didn't. What could he trust of the truth now? He needed to talk to Jiya. To figure out what happened during the time she spent with Rittenhouse. Was there a reason Jessica abducted her, beyond stealing the Lifeboat and getting Jessica to Rittenhouse?

Frustrated, he threw back the covers and decided to get a move on the day. He'd run his brain in circles if he stayed here. They needed to get all the facts together in one place.

* * *

Flynn lay awake, motionless, not wanting to disturb Lucy any sooner than necessary. So much had happened and still awaited them. He would guard her dreams until she was ready to face the future. The unknowns plagued him. The Lucy he knew from the journal wrote her entries with great care. Occasionally, she let something slip among the pages, like the vodka bottle. Or something innocuous, like the song her mother sang. But in her rare hours of weakness, when she confided her deepest secrets in the pages of her journal, her confessions spoke only of Wyatt. That Lucy never wrote about this event. Never wrote how she felt about him, only that they were meant to be allies. Between the lines, he felt like she respected him, but he couldn't be sure.

What he gleaned from her writings, her strength and persistence, her firm belief in right and wrong, agreed with the woman he knew now. He followed her journey as she learned that sometimes what was right didn't always agree with history; learned when to fight for the past and when to change it to fight for the future. Still, every one of her decisions were made for the greater good.

He thought about Lorena and Iris. He'd lived without them for so long, their memory appeared hazy. What would he do if they came back to him unexpectedly? Lucy encircled in his arms, he'd do anything to keep her safe. But what if that meant keeping her safe from Flynn breaking her heart. What would he have done in Wyatt's place? He'd watched the effect on the historian for weeks now and it was slowly breaking his heart.

He didn't know how to feel. He'd been fighting to get his family back for so long, but getting them back meant letting go of the woman sleeping peaceful in his arms. She wouldn't fault him, of course she wouldn't. It just wasn't in her. Was he willing to sacrifice a possible future with Lucy for a past he'd lived without for years?

Even if she left him in the end, he couldn't let it be because he was still chasing his family. It wasn't fair to her. He had to fully let his family go if he wanted to give anything with Lucy an honest chance.

Delicate fingers ran down his forearm. "Morning." Lucy turned and blinked up at him, her eyes still heavy with sleep.

Unsure of where they stood, he hesitated before bending down to place a soft kiss on her lips. "Good morning." Her smile, sweet and a little shy, locked his heart tighter to hers. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did. My nights haven't been the most restful as of late," she admitted.

He lay back and she fitted herself into his side, her head on his chest, long brown hair trailing over his arm. He never wanted to leave this, wanted to keep the outside world from intruding on this small bit of paradise. They'd have to face the truth soon enough.

Lucy studied Flynn's face, watching a dazzling array of emotions as they played across his features.

"What are you thinking about?" She traced her fingers over his collarbone, visible where his t-shirt pulled down just a little. "Your face is going a mile a minute."

He chuckled, a low rumble in his chest that she felt where their bodies pressed together. "Mostly how I never want to leave this moment. But, I know reality will intrude soon enough."

She drew herself up, "If we only have this moment…" the rest of the thought left dangling as she brought their lips to meet. Last night, Flynn held back, their uncertain future taunting him. This morning, Lucy coaxed the truth from his kiss, tasting hope, possibility. Gave into the mirrored hope she tried so hard to ignore.

His fingers found the soft skin of her stomach, slipping just under the tank top she'd slept in, only a tease, a temptation of tomorrow. She kissed down to the hollow of his throat and accepted his promise.

They parted and Flynn searched her expression for any hesitancy. "Are we really doing this? If this is just an interlude, I need to know. It won't change how I feel about you, but we can keep this casual if that's what you prefer."

"I've made my choice, Garcia. I don't want to rush this, but you're definitely stuck with me now." His answering smile stole her breath and she kissed him once more for the sheer joy of it.

"I love when you call me that," he whispered.

She propped up her chin on his chest. "Then I'll have to do it more often."

"But only when we're alone," he winked at her, "I want to keep that our thing. Heaven knows, I couldn't handle it if Agent Christopher started calling me by my given name."

She laughed and glanced at the old analog clock showing 7:30 am. She stretched and sat up, swinging her legs to the floor. "I suppose we have to face the world now."

"If we must," Flynn leaned up on one arm and drank in her profile. Hair, messy from sleep, little crinkles still lining her cheeks, she was relaxed and utterly stunning. "I'll go first and make sure the coast is clear." Wyatt might think him heartless, but it wasn't true. If they hurt Wyatt, it would hurt Lucy, and that was unthinkable.

Lucy turned sideways, shaking her head in disagreement, "I don't want to hide what we've found. Do I think it'd be prudent not to flaunt it? Yes, but I want to be honest about this. There's been so many secrets, it's how we all ended up in this position. We don't need to make an announcement or anything, but I don't want to risk what might be by hiding what is."

He sat up, wrapping his good arm around her waist, "Well, when you put it like that." He kissed the nape of her neck. "You always were the wiser of the two of us."

* * *

The Lifeboat scanned each of its humans. Their vitals registering within acceptable parameters, though on the lower end of the scale. Needed sustenance. The human named Jiya with the Mason one. This was good. Good and bad were new concepts to the machine, but it learned. As the people traveled, the Lifeboat accumulated more data. This new experience altered everything before. Much to reinterpret.

The yellow one, enemy now, teaching about betrayal. Then the Lifeboat learned about death. Ceasing to exist. The Pilot. My Pilot. The one named Rufus.

The travelers gathered. The Lifeboat reviewed the history stored within its mainframe.

* * *

The team sat scattered in the kitchen and living room. Jiya and Mason in the seating around their coffee table, discussing equations. Flynn and Lucy sat at one table, heads bent in quiet conversation, Agent Christopher took over another table, sipping her coffee, examining the team when they were otherwise occupied.

Wyatt finally stopped pacing and got down to business. "Here's the unknowns as I see them. One. Why did Rittenhouse bring Jessica back? To mess with the team, obviously, but to what end? That's a huge risk to take. We're chasing them, not the other way around. Any intel they gathered would be personal in nature, not tactical. Not too mention, they couldn't have guaranteed the results of bringing her back, so the reason had to be pretty big."

Wyatt glanced over the group, giving them a chance to add anything. When no one spoke up, he continued, "Two. Why did Jessica out herself? It's impossible that she made a mistake. Even if she had a different memory, Rittenhouse brought her brother back, she knew that. They're not stupid, they would've drilled her on alterations to the original timeline. So why bring up the brother at all? Not too mention, three. When they took Jiya, they had to know we'd stop at nothing to find her again."

"It's like they've been leading us on a merry chase." Mason commented, thinking it all a bit odd.

"Exactly. And from now I want us on the offensive." Wyatt looked to Jiya. "What can you tell us about the time before you ended up in San Francisco?"

"They kept me drugged, so it's kind of fuzzy." She scrunched up her nose, thinking hard.

"Did they have a reason for keeping you?" Wyatt prompted her, trying to get her started.

Jiya closed her eyes, probing her memories. "Jessica brought me into some sort of a warehouse maybe and then led me into a room that might've served as an office, but there was a cot. But not a room you'd stay in if you weren't forced. Carol was there, she made me take a sleeping pill. Said I had a lot to learn. I figure they wanted to keep me for an extra pilot, but...I don't know, it feels like there's more." She dug into the mental picture of the room, replaying images. "Carol said, there was a lot of work to do. What that work was, I couldn't tell you. But I got the feeling they wanted to indoctrinate me. They left me alone after that, I only escaped by strangling the guard. I had to."

"Of course you did." Lucy reassured her friend. "They kidnapped you. You saved your own life and got the Lifeboat out of their hands. You did exactly what any one of us would have done."

"You did everything right, Jiya," Wyatt assured her before proceeding. "That concurs with everything we know about Rittenhouse. They've obviously got something nefarious up their sleeves."

"So, either they had plan that worked better with two pilots," Agent Christopher paused, considering. "Or they were just lucky. The bonus of keeping the Lifeboat away from us so we couldn't stop their plans. I'm not convinced of either, it still feels like we're missing something. What's your gut instinct tell you, Jiya?"

"Honestly, it felt like Carol was just taking advantage of the situation. I was in the middle of a vision when Jessica took me. I would've been able to fight her off otherwise."

Something pricked at Wyatt. "How could Jessica have known that Jiya would be there to fly her out? She couldn't have, so she probably planned to walk right out the door. I never told her that Agent Christopher keeps us locked in." He considered further. Is it possible Jessica knew how to fly the time machine?That didn't seem probable, but he filed away the idea to let it percolate.. "Without more information, I agree with Jiya. I think Jessica saw an opportunity and grabbed it."

"Besides, they had to know we'd get the Lifeboat back." Denise added. "And they know how to turn off the tracker, so it's not like we'd have known to follow them even after we got Jiya back. The only thing I know for sure is that it's gotta be tied to the reason your future selves showed up to warn us."

"It seems they're likely trying to take one of us off the playing field. Easier if they have the Lifeboat, but even without it, they don't know about the future time team giving us the heads up.. So we've got that going for us." Flynn crossed to the coffee pot, refilling his mug and stepping back to the table to do the same for Lucy. Setting the pot back in the cradle, he sipped as he took his seat again. "Whose absence from the team does the most damage? Obviously, Wyatt or Lucy."

Wyatt joined Agent Christopher, pulling out a chair and sitting, crossing his arms over his chest. He frowned, having noticed Flynn's small gesture, and bit out. "I won't disagree with that. We spent most of our acquaintance trying to kill each other. No offense, Flynn," he finished insincerely.

"None taken. You're not my favorite person either," Flynn responded with far less rancor than expected.

"Well, I disagree," Lucy responded "Flynn's saved my life a few times now. Without him, when Jessica came back, I'd have gone charging into Salem without protection and probably been hanged." She winced when she saw Wyatt flinch. She knew he blamed himself and was about to remind him it wasn't his fault when another thought occurred to her, "But more importantly, Flynn's the reason we were recruited in the first place. If he hadn't stolen the Mothership, none of us would have met. Losing me from the team, however, wouldn't affect the timeline enough. Denise would've recruited a different historian, end of story. So I think it's gotta be Wyatt or Flynn."

Both Wyatt and Flynn looked like they were about to argue, but Agent Christopher beat them to it, "I don't know about that, Lucy," She contradicted. "You and Jiya are the reason I didn't marry Sunihl. That was beyond your role as a historian. A different person might not have made the same choices."

Wyatt's frustration was evident. "Where does that leave us?"

"From my outside-ish perspective," Jiya shrugged, "I still think it could be any of you."

Mason agreed, "Each of you brings their own vital and unique energy to the team so how do we narrow it down?"

"I fear we have to go to each of our pasts and figure it out from there. Is that possible?" Flynn looked to Jiya for confirmation.

"Yes, we've managed two jumps before, but If Emma isn't lurking in one of those events, we'll have to wait for the Lifeboat to recharge to jump to the last."

Wyatt stood. "I don't like it, but I think this is the best plan we're gonna come up with. Anyone disagree?" He gave them a chance to bring up any concerns. "Alright, it's settled. Lucy, Flynn, and I will prioritize the three trips. Jiya, how close are we with the timeline tech?"

"Mason and I were about to get back to it when everyone woke up and we started planning." She rose and moved towards the computers. "I'll know more once we crack this most recent issue. I'd explain, but it'd get a little Doctor Who-y for you-"

Jiya stopped short. Mason, following close behind her, just missed colliding with her. "Doctor Who!" She sprinted up the platform bringing up the most recent set of equations. Mason sat down next to her, waiting to be of help. "Of course! That's why I made the reference."

The rest of the group followed, perplexed. Lucy watched as Jiya's fingers flew over the keys. "What's going on? Fill us in here, Jiya. Not all of us are nerds."

She paused, turning to Mason. "Pull up the team's DNA files." Mason went searching for the data. "It's something future me said combined with what Connor said to me earlier. That Rufus and I are half science, half pop-culture. That we pull from both sides to solve problems. Which is true. I wrote my message in Klingon. Rufus spoke to me in Star Wars. Ergo, the rest of the problem is solved by Doctor Who."

She faced the group who waited, not so patiently, for the rest of the explanation. "There's this episode where the people are being turned into these weird beings with gas face masks by these nanobot sorta things. The Doctor is only able to save everyone because he figures out that nanobots just need the original base code of the mother."

Mason's brain caught up. "So that's why you couldn't determine the needed frequency!"

"That's right!" Mason hit send on his computer and shuttled the information over to Jiya. "I need to know your individual DNA, your genetic code. That's how the universe identifies us. If I alter your code slightly, I can program the chip to put that signal out, instead of the original code."

Flynn appeared skeptical. "And that's safe?"

Jiya turned to him. "Well, I still have to run some tests, but there's no reason to think it would be dangerous. It's not actually rewriting your DNA, just broadcasting a different signal into the universe. Also explains why our future selves' memories went squirrely around us."

"How long?" Wyatt asked, always the soldier, getting right to the point.

"Maybe five, six hours?" Jiya gave her best guess. "What do you think, Mason?"

"I have some ideas how to make it work. Should speed up the process. Between the two of us, we should be able to finish it in a few hours at most."

"Sounds like a plan. Wyatt," Agent Christopher got the man's attention. "You, Lucy, and Flynn put your heads together. I want a mission with as many contingencies as possible. ASAP."

"You got it, ma'am." He looked to Flynn and Lucy. "Get some food, shower, whatever. Meet back here in fifteen."

They broke into motion. Lucy called out, "Dibs on the shower."

"Lucy, hang back a bit." Denise stopped her. "Walk with me."

"Sure, no problem. What's up?" The older woman let the guys get ahead of them. "I'm worried about you. You've lost a lot lately."

"My world's been a bit topsy turvy recently, that's for sure."

Denise laid a hand on her arm. "You don't have to pretend with me, I hope you know that. No matter what your mothers done, she's still your mother." She gave Lucy time before she proceeded. "Have you considered that she might help Emma with this trip?"

Lucy stared down the hallway. "I have. I don't think she'll be there. Jessica will, I think, since Emma will need backup, but my mother doesn't want to kill me, her dying wish was that she told me about my place in Rittenhouse sooner. Also, I got the feeling in San Francisco that Emma had gone rogue."

Agent Christopher worried nonetheless. "I just want you to be prepared for every eventuality. We can't see the whole picture yet."

"I know." Lucy stopped and leaned against the wall. "If we save Rufus, we also save my mom. I have no idea what to do about that."

The older woman nudged her shoulder. "Don't borrow trouble. First, get Rufus back. We'll deal with your mother tomorrow."

A small smile crossed her face. "Yes, ma'am."

Denise squeezed her hand and began to walk away. She turned back. "Also, talk to Wyatt. This thing with you and Flynn's gotta be hard for him. And we've all had the shits of it lately."

"How did you know? We weren't trying to-"

"No, no. I know that, but you and Flynn have changed around each other. You're softer, more careful now. As if it matters more. That's not a bad thing. Surprising, but not bad. Probably not the man I would've chosen for you…" she smiled down at the younger woman, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, "but we both know it's not up to me. All I care about is that you deserve to be happy. You're forever looking out for everyone else's happiness. Even at the expense of your own." She pulled Lucy in for a hug. "Now, go get your shower before the guys lose patience and use all the hot water."

Denise watched as she headed off, hoping against hope that Lucy's theory proved correct. That her mother wouldn't be with Emma. For the simple fact of Lucy's heart, she wasn't sure how much more their historian could take. And for the real reason she'd sent Wyatt alone on that mission. She never wanted Lucy to face the choice of killing her mother. Yet she feared it might come to that.


	5. Chapter Four

Flynn and Wyatt sat on the couches opposite her. "So how do we go about this? I mean, who's past do we check out first? Is there a hierarchy or a battle plan that makes sense?" Lucy deferred to Wyatt. "Any brilliant military insight? This is a bit bigger and more proactive than usual. Normally we're playing catch-up."

He leaned forward, elbows coming to rest on his knees. "Well, considering we already know that Rittenhouse messed with my past, it makes the most sense to start with the night my original Jessica died. WIth Jessica's-" he swallowed, her betrayal still fresh, "with Jessica feeding information to Emma, they have to know messing in my timeline works to disrupt the team. If it worked once…" he let the thought linger before continuing. "Your accident, however, as you've told me, was just an accident. Nothing seemed amiss about it, right?"

Rushing water flashed through her memory. She shook it off. "Right. Other than not remembering much beyond the crash and the water, it was just an oil slick. Nothing nefarious or anything, just bad driving." She really wished she could remember who'd saved her, but that wasn't a Rittenhouse conspiracy, just the result of a head injury. The doctor informed her afterwards that she might never recover the memory and she never had. And whoever saved her hadn't left a calling card.

"Agreed." Wyatt picked up the conversation again. "And like my past, we know Rittenhouse was involved in the death of Flynn's family. We can't rule out that it was our Emma, but it appears that it's retribution for Flynn going to his NSA contact. Thoughts, Flynn?"

Flynn picked up the reins of the conversation. "From what I remember of that night, it seemed to be a simple hit on me and my family. A way to shut me up. Though it was dark and I barely made it out alive. Seems to me, Emma from this timeline wouldn't have stopped until I was dead."

"I don't disagree," Wyatt replied. "But we can't rule out your past as a possibility because if you don't steal the Mothership, there's no guarantee Lucy and I ever get recruited by Agent Christopher."

Lucy stood, putting space between her and the weirdness that was Flynn and Wyatt being civil. She forced herself to focus on the conversation at hand. Rolling around the possibilities in her brain, she knew only one thing for absolute certain: Emma hated her.

Crossing to the fridge, Lucy grabbed a bottle of water and tried to get into the redhead's mind. Emma would view an attack on Flynn as strictly tactical. If she attempted to kill Flynn and failed, she risked everything for a long shot. Flynn wouldn't go down that easy. She also reasoned that Emma wouldn't know what Flynn meant to her since she had no idea herself. Lucy didn't see that killing him would be personal enough for Emma. Then again, if Flynn never met her future self, where did that leave them? The past changing constantly through Rittenhouse manipulation and they'd have no clue.

On the other hand, an attack on Wyatt used emotion and sentiment as additional weapons. Emma had to suspect that if anything happened to Wyatt, Lucy would be much less effective. The team had only gotten as far as they had because of their soldier. Take out Wyatt, and though Lucy would likely still be recruited, how long would she last against Flynn? Against Rittenhouse? Bam Bam died on his one and only mission; it didn't bode well for anyone who wasn't Wyatt. How far would the team have gotten without him? She moved back to the living room and perched on the end of Flynn's sofa.

She went with her gut. "Seems to me like Wyatt's right. We'll start with his past working off the idea that Emma might figure that if it worked once, it might work in again. It's the biggest unknown in the entire situation anyway. Wyatt never lived the last six years of Jessica's timeline, it makes sense to go back to the beginning and figure out what happened that night. We know she didn't die. So what happened? Agreed?"

"Agreed," they answered at the same time. Flynn kept going. "How long before these events should we arrive? Seems to me that Emma will need time to scope out the situation, yes?" He looked to Wyatt for confirmation.

"Definitely. You aren't going into a battlefield unprepared even if you're completely sure no one else knows what you're doing. I already have a good lay of the land in my past. I spent days afterwards in those woods searching for Jessica. I'd say an hour, tops, beforehand. I know when the car stopped, but I want keep an eye on the area."

"Sounds good. That puts your past up second." She looked to Flynn. "Are you gonna be good with this? I can't imagine having to face what you lived through twice in a lifetime." Lucy worried about Wyatt as well, but he wouldn't have to watch his family be brutally murdered. It was original Jess who was murdered, not RittenJess.

Flynn gave her a small half smile, wanting to reach for her hand, but with Wyatt sitting five feet away, he held back."I'll be fine. I've lived with the memory for long enough. Nothing I've done along the line changed the path, I've long been acquainted with their deaths."

It would be hard to watch from the outside, he knew that, but he'd been letting them go little by little the last few years. Much of that, he could admit now, was due to the woman sitting to his right. She saved his life first by giving him a focus for his vengeance and setting him on this path. Then she saved it again by her example in the fight against RIttenhouse. Every time she reached out to him, pleaded with him to do better, another bit of his anger fell away.

"Okay. Good. We'll plan for my past if and when we need to, we'll have to recharge the Lifeboat at that point anyway." Lucy said looking at these two brave men. Both of them had hard pasts to face today. They'd need to take a bit of time if they hadn't faced Emma yet.

Wyatt rose, winding his way out of the couches. "We should update Agent Christopher then touch base with Jiya and Mason."

As if she'd been called, Agent Christopher appeared. "Present and accounted for." The other three joined her. "Do we have a plan?"

"Yes, ma'am." Wyatt filled her in on what they'd decided. "We'll each need to update Jiya so that she can prepare the jumps."

"I'm in agreement. Follow me." Agent Christopher headed down the bunker hallway to the closet where they kept what they jokingly called their "armory." Except when she unlocked the door this time, behind it lay an actual arsenal. "I called in some favors. We're taking no chances with this one. I wasn't joking when I said I wanted you loaded for bear."

Flynn's feral grin echoed Wyatt's eager hands. They moved forward and Denise backed out of the way. Leaning to Lucy, she softened her voice, "I know how you feel about it, but I'm gonna need you to carry a weapon for this one."

Lucy didn't argue, just nodded and asked, "I'll take your recommendation. I've been working on my proficiency, but I'd like your opinion on what would suit me best."

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Agent Christopher held out her hands like she had when she finally gave Flynn a weapon. The silver box, also identical. "I picked this out for you myself. It's a 38 special. You don't have to carry it all the time, but I think you should. We can't fall back on the idea that Wyatt or Flynn will always be there to protect you."

Lucy's heart constricted. The idea of losing either of them hurt too much. "Thank you, Denise. I won't let you down."

"I know you won't." The older woman refused to let herself cry. There'd be time enough for that later, after everything was said and done.

When Lucy spoke next, her words were quiet, fierce. "I'll protect them. We're not losing anyone else."

Since Flynn and Wyatt appeared to be done raiding the cookie jar, she interrupted their reverie. "Wyatt, write down the specifics for the jump to your past and I'll get Jiya on the prep. Then take Lucy above ground and let her get a handle on her new gun. Flynn, you hang back and help me start getting packed up and ready to go."

"Yes, ma'am." Wyatt led the way to the exit, intent on speaking to the guards before Lucy even made it up the ladder. They needed to know that if anything happened, they were to grab her, bodily if necessary, and get her below before anything else. He knew her well enough to know she'd stay and fight alongside him. No matter what she said about her place on the team, no one could replace their historian.

Lucy watched as Wyatt walked away and then stepped towards Flynn, slipping her fingers through his. She pulled him closer and standing on tiptoe brushed her lips across his. Brief, but sweet.

"What was that for?" Flynn wrapped his arms around her, relieved that she was safe with him, however long that lasted.

"Because I wanted to." Her smile dazzled him and he returned it with ease.

Agent Christopher cleared her throat. "We've work to do, if you two don't mind." Definitely a command, but said with no heat. Let the team find the comfort they could before they faced down the demon of their present come to steal their future. "Flynn, grab Lucy some ammo and then make yourself useful organizing the guns you and Wyatt want to take with you."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Flynn mock saluted and winked at Agent Christopher before he backed away, letting his fingers linger with Lucy's before distance parted them.

When Lucy was out of earshot, Agent Christopher turned to Flynn. "I'm going to say this once. If this is anything other than what it seems, I will rip your arms off and beat you with them. If you are using her to prove something to Wyatt, or anything like that, I will decapitate you and post your head on a spike as a warning to anyone else who dares try again. That woman is like a daughter to me and it's only the fact that I do truly believe you love her that I'm not transferring you to the first maximum security prison that would take you. Preferably in Siberia."

Flynn opened his mouth to interrupt her, but he never go the chance. "I've watched you since the first time you came across our radar. You started out classified as a terrorist, you're only just beginning to redeem yourself from the actions you took before you fully joined us here in the bunker. Lucy's trust of you lends a bit of her belief that you are a good man to me. But if you break her heart, you will know the wrath of Mama Bear. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Flynn looked at her directly. "I'd rather die than hurt her."

Agent Christopher smirked, "that will be easily arranged."

Lucy stopped just around the corner expecting Denise to give Flynn a piece of her mind. Not able to make out their conversation, but she'd be close if she heard shouting. When both Christopher and Flynn were still alive after a few minutes, she continued on and climbed the ladder. Turning the wheel, she opened the hatch and the smells of the machine shop greeted her.

"Hey John, hey Philly." She nodded to the two guards. "What're you working on this week?" The bunker was camouflaged as a working garage and since both men loved cars they always had something up on the lift. Bonus for them, she imagined. And for the agents who brought them to the guys for fixing. They didn't have to worry about any extralegal modifications that way. They made it all seem like just two ex-military guys who ran an off the beaten path garage.

John, the taller of the two, answered, "'67 Chevy Impala. Needs rebuilt from the frame up. I told the kid it wasn't worth fixing, but he was adamant." He shrugged and she passed him to get to the back door. "She'll be a beauty when we finish with her."

"I bet, you'll have to let me see her when you're done." She waved and opened the door that led to their makeshift shooting range. Fitting right in with the country mechanic shop, brokedown cars littered the field they left partially overgrown. They came out here to train on occasion, using the crowded landscape to hone their ability to use their environment. They also had targets placed at jagged intervals interspersed between the cars.

She enjoyed coming out here, did it more than anyone besides John and Philly knew. She didn't know the guys Agent Christopher had at night since she never came up here after dark. She wasn't a fool. But during the day, they never gave her a hard time about coming out. Though she knew they kept a closer eye on her when she was alone.

Wyatt sat at the picnic table, focus intent as he stripped and cleaned his weapon. He gestured to the opposite side where hers waited. He offered advice as she went through the motions that would eventually become routine. For now, he just wanted her to get a good feel for it.

They ran through the usual exercises in companionable silence and her accuracy increased until she hit most of the targets. Not bad, she thought. Maybe not as deadly as Wyatt, she glanced at his perfect target practice, but not bad. Being here with him almost felt like old times. Before Jessica times. She hadn't been placating him when she said she missed him as a friend. She really did. They'd been friends far longer than they'd been intimate. Lucy loved him, of that she had no doubt, but so much had happened between them since.

Not too much for a friend to forgive, but her heart needed more care than a simple apology. But friends, she could absolutely do friends.

"So, Christopher sent me with you so you could talk me down? Ensure that I don't shoot Flynn and blame it on Emma first chance I get? That it?" Wyatt startled her out of her reverie.

"Um, well, see-uh…not in so many words" She cleared her throat hoping to buy herself time to formulate a sentence. "How did you know?"

He chuckled. "Lucy, I've known you for a couple years now. I know the faces you make when you're not actually here. That face you were just making wasn't daydream about living in the past Lucy face. That was I really need to solve a problem face." He perched on top of the picnic table. "I imagine, I'm the problem."

This wasn't going well at all and she hadn't even gotten going yet. She joined him, thinking to defuse the situation. "No, no, not at all. You aren't a problem. Never. Agent Christopher just wanted me to speak to you...she thought it might be a shock."

"What might be a shock? You and Flynn? Lucy, please give me more credit than that. I walked in on you two in San Francisco, remember?" The bitterness evident in his words, her cheeks warmed in chagrin. "I know I screwed us up. I just hope you don't regret it."

His harsh tone took her aback. "But you seemed okay with Flynn earlier."

"We're planning to rescue Rufus, I can keep my disappointment in check to save a team member." He turned and stared right at her, his usually kind blue eyes turned to glaciers. "Do you really think so little of me?"

"No, it's not that. I guess I was just hopeful." The undercurrent of anger ran through his entire body, she could see it now in the way he held himself. "This is what I've been trying to avoid. I'm sorry I moved on from you, Wyatt. I really am. I didn't want to, but with Jessica back, you can see how I didn't have a choice."

Wyatt stood and began to pace through the shin high grass. "You absolutely had a choice."

"A choice to, what Wyatt? Sit around pining over you while listening to you and your wife screw each other?" He'd angered her now. Just when she was thinking of how nice it was to have her friend back. "Learn to knit your baby little booties while I sit in a field weaving daisies through my hair? Should I wait until you and Rufus are done giggling before-"

As soon as it was out of her mouth, she regretted it. "What would he think of us right now? Bickering instead of prepping for the mission." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. But seriously, Wyatt. What would you have me do?"

Wyatt's train of thought faltered and his pace slowed."I get it, Lucy, I really do. But Flynn? Why him?"

"He's been kind, Wyatt." She really wished he could see the good in Flynn. She shrugged. "I like talking to him. It's easy."

"He tried to kill us. Tried to strand us in the 1700s," Wyatt exclaimed, "He shot me."

"That is true and he still has a lot to make up for, but he's trying, really trying to be a better man. He is a better man. I know it, I've seen it. I know it doesn't seem like it to you, but he's been a good friend to me through all this. To my surprise we've grown closer since we brought him into the bunker. It's very new, but it feels right. I'm sorry if that hurts you. I really am."

"I knew I'd regret bringing him into the bunker." Wyatt looked at her, wistful. "And if Jessica had never returned?"

She sighed, sad at the loss at the unlived moments. "Let's not ask those kinds of questions. That timeline doesn't exist. What happened, happened. Now we have to deal with the fallout." She stood and took his hands.

The disappointment etched into his expression, his voice quiet, Wyatt conceded, "We would've been happy."

She offered him an honest smile. "Very."

"I really am sorry for everything," he pulled her in for a hug. "I've been awful to you and the team. But we're gonna save Rufus and I'm gonna make it up to all of you."

Lucy held him tight, offering her belief in him. "I know you will."

After they separated, Wyatt gave her his crooked half-smile she loved so much. "So friends?" he asked, his outstretched hand reaching for hers.

Clasping his hand in return, she answered. "Absolutely, schweetheart."

Keeping her hand in his, he tugged her back to the garage. "Let's get back to the bunker, Babydoll. I've got some glaring to do at Flynn." She elbowed him in the ribs. "Ouch! That actually hurt. Don't break me before we start the mission."

He held open the door and she ducked under his arm. "You'll behave or you'll regret it," she warned and wove her way through the random tools and hoses.

"Oh will I?" He chuckled as they descended back into the bunker. His spirit felt lighter than it had in weeks.

"I was a band geek, you don't want to cross me," she quipped back at him. "I know all the worst ways to torture you." Wyatt sounded like Wyatt again, that made her happy.

"Arm or ass?" Jiya stood in front of Flynn, the hypodermic needle poised in her hand.

"How sure are we that my brain won't go kablooey?" He asked with more sarcasm than actual trepidation as he rolled up his left sleeve. "Because I'm kind of fond of my brain."

"Shut up and let her stick you,." Agent Christopher insisted as she laid out the maps, looking over the topography of the land. "When Jiya's finished with you, get over here and help me dot the i's and cross the t's. Lucy, you're up next."

Jiya swabbed the area on Flynn's arm. "Once we figured out how to adjust the DNA signal, it was a matter of coding. That I can do in my sleep. Which is good, since, you know, we're all running on fumes at this point. Too bad Emma didn't schedule in time for a nap."

"Running on fumes or not, this is still the best time team out there!" Flynn quipped.

Jiya hung her head in mock shame and she finished up. "You are ridiculous, you know that, right?" She shooed him away. "You're done. Go make yourself useful."

"Yes, Miss Jiya," Flynn responded before joining Agent Christopher.

"We need a house." She pulled up an aerial picture of Flynn's neighborhood on her laptop."You said the event happened in late August, correct?"

"Around 3 am on the 23rd." He steadied himself. "I heard the first shots at 3:17."

"Was there anybody around you out of town that night? Anybody have a standing pinochle night we could take advantage of?"

He wracked his brain. An image of his daughter Iris playing in a sandbox with a dark haired, chubby cheeked little boy prompted the information. "The Millers. Across the street." Agent Christopher zoomed in on the house he indicated. "They had a little boy named Ben. The mom, June, stayed at home and Bob worked for the post office. They went to Disney that week. I remember, we offered to water their plants while they were gone."

"Perfect. We'll set up there. Great sight lines. We've got your past on standby then." Agent Christopher thumbed through the maps until she found the topographic of the area where Jessica got out of the car. "Wyatt, you're up. I'd like to send Flynn and Jiya to the bar early, just to keep an eye out. What was the name of it again?"

"Pelican Lounge." He pointed it out. "Plenty of vantage points. Jess and I sat at the bar so it'll be easy to watch us without drawing much attention. I'd suggest the two of you take a booth by the window."

Flynn nodded. "Good to know. You on board, partner?"

Jiya rolled her eyes, " I might need to tequila to wash my brain out afterwards, but sure." She tried to make light of the situation, but her heart was tethered to the thread of hope that they'd get Rufus back.


	6. Chapter Five

Begin flight preparations. Almost ready. The Lifeboat checked the numbers. Two jumps. Recalled the Not-Rufus one. Review data logs. Confirmed. The Jiya one as pilot. The Lifeboat scanned training logs, sorting information. Learning. Complex series of computations needed. Difficult to fold into the current timestream. Require underlying program running backup. Secondary program initiated.

* * *

Jiya adjusted in the pilot seat as she finished inputting the coordinates. It didn't feel right to sit there. Rufus belonged in this space, not her. She crashed the simulation more often than not. So much more rode on this jump. Her Rufus.

Footsteps tapped up the stairs to the Lifeboat. Mason popped his head in. "Just checking in to see how you're coming along."

"Getting there. A few of the calculations are a bit of a sticky wicket, but I'll untangle it. We'll be ready to go soon." This trip required perfection. Each piece of data in its exact position.

She felt Mason's hand on her shoulder. "You've got this. Don't worry. I trust you."

Jiya swiped at a rebel tear and and leaned her cheek down to his fingers. "Thank you. Tell the others, we'll be ready to go in fifteen, please."

"Of course." He rubbed his knuckles against her cheek. "Be careful."

He climbed back down the stairs and crossed to join Wyatt and Agent Christopher. "Almost time now." They both turn to look at him and gave quick nods turning back to the last minute details. "Fifteen minutes."

"We'll be ready," Wyatt replied as he folded maps and stored them for easy access. They'd make it easier to navigate the woods around the area. Especially at night. He set aside one for Flynn and Jiya's walk to the bar.

Mason saw Flynn and Lucy standing down the hall aways. "I'll fill in the others and then double check the computers."

"Sounds good." Agent Christopher studied the digital visual of the house they'd use to stake out Flynn's house. She raised her eyes. "I don't have to tell you that we can't risk the slightest miscalculation."

"I've known Rufus since he was a gangly boy. I know better than most what's riding on this mission. There will be no mistakes."

They shared a determined look. "Understood. Go fill in Lucy and Flynn and let's button this up."

Mason turned and walked down the hallway, slowing his approach when he noticed Flynn placing something in Lucy's hand.

"It's beautiful."

He could hear the affection in the young woman's voice; he'd obviously interrupted a private moment. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a bother." He stammered with embarrassment.

The two turned to him as one and Lucy spoke. "No biggie, Mason. What's up?"

"I just wanted to let you know, Jiya started the fifteen minute countdown. Just finishing up the last of the preparations now." He noticed their still-entwined fingers, a long silver chain dangling between them. "You have a few more minutes if you need them."

She reached out with her free hand and squeezed his forearm. Flynn answered, "Thanks, Mason. We'll be right there."

He smiled and headed back towards the computers. An odd pairing to be sure, but Lucy's smile was enough for him. He had no room to judge anyone.

Flynn guided Lucy around the corner, just out of sight. He looked down at their clasped hands. "It was my mother's. I traveled home right after Lorena and Iris died and she gave it to me. I don't know what she saw in me that day, but I was a mess. I think she knew it was the last time."She died shortly after, I didn't make it home for the funeral." He gazed down at her, the feel of the locket between them a warm heady feeling. "She told me it was for the future after I stopped chasing the past. I've carried it since then and wanted to give it to you for awhile, but you already had a locket and I didn't know if you'd accept it." His voice trailed off and he looked away, unsure and vulnerable.

She leaned into him, listening to his heartbeat, comforted. "I love it."

"When you had to leave yours behind in San Francisco," he took a step back and opened her hand that held the locket. Taking it from her, he opened the clasp. She moved her hair aside and he placed it around her neck. "No matter the fears I had, I knew it was time. I knew why my mother gave it to me."

Lucy reached into her pocket for the pictures, opened the locket, and nestled them inside. Just having them on her again made her feel better. Closing it, she studied the worn silver engraving on the outside.

Flynn answered her unspoken question. "It's St. Christopher, the Patron Saint of Travelers. He'll be there to look over you even when I'm not."

Lucy tucked it into her shirt, liking the weight of it against her chest. Reaching up, she brushed her fingers through his hair. "Thank you, Garcia. It's perfect."

Their lips closed the distance and they lingered, just a little longer, in the peace found in an embrace that felt like coming home.

Neither wanted to part, but Flynn took a half step back, looking down at this miraculous woman. "I could stay here forever, but it's time." He held out his hand for her to take.

Her much smaller had fit nicely into his and he felt a surge of hope. Maybe they could get through this and he and Lucy could begin a real life together. They'd take out RIttenhouse and walk away from the LIfeboat, leaving history to the writers. She could stay at Stanford or they'd find her that little liberal arts college she told him about during the vodka night.

Joining the others, they wore the same expression: hope coupled with anxiety. Fear that they wouldn't bring their friend back. Agent Christopher knew better, but she understood their trepidation.

"Alright, this is it, kids." Their eyes held the fire she'd hoped for. "There's no amount of pep talks that'll make this any easier, so I won't offer you any platitudes. You are the team that I've chosen. All of you. Together you can bring him home. So take out Emma. Take out Rittenhouse once and for all. And then I'll take you all for ice cream."

They chuckled, which was her intent. Still smiling, they filed towards the Lifeboat. One by one Denise watched them disappear into the time machine. After the door closed, she grabbed Mason's hand. With the other, she offered a little wave the team couldn't see.

Inside the machine, Jiya checked the calculations. Then double checked them. Fidgeting, she glanced around at Lucy, Flynn, and Wyatt. She was stalling and they all knew it.

"Jiya, you've got this." Wyatt laid hand on her shoulder. "You piloted the Lifeboat twice at the worst of times. This is nothing." They all knew it wasn't nothing.

He leaned back and Jiya straightened her shoulders, determination filling her. "For Rufus."

 _For Rufus,_ they all said silently.

* * *

Bring controls online. Calculations cycling in preparation. Begin countdown. 10...9...adjust the levels against the horizon. 8...7...6...data packets received. Go for launch. 5...4...prepare for resistance. 3...2...1...folding space now. Time contracts. Pushing through the shield that protects the timeline. Jiya pilot monitors and adapts. Modify the third packet. The horizon tilts. The Lifeboat fine-tunes. Push through the final barrier.

* * *

April 4, 2011

They landed with a thud around the midway point between the Pelican Lounge and Portero road mile marker 47. Closer than Jiya expected. She exhaled, the weight of her accomplishment a relief. "See, told ya." Wyatt beamed at Jiya. "We knew you could do it."

"Well, I had my doubts," Flynn snarked as Jiya opened the door, "but as I am still in one piece, I'll say nice job."

Lucy's bony elbow connected with his ribcage as Wyatt headed out first. Jiya and Lucy followed behind leaving Flynn to bring up the rear. While Flynn rounded the back of the time machine, Wyatt scanned the area ahead.

"We're good here. How's our six?" Wyatt called back, not releasing any of the tension in his outstretched gun arm.

Flynn responded, "All clear." With that, both men holstered their weapons.

Lucy gave the group a once-over. "How is everybody? Anything more than the normal queasiness?" She didn't feel any different, but how would she know? Would she know? Time travel hasn't exactly been well researched.

"The chips appear to be working since we're here and alive." _Thank god,_ Jiya thought to herself. "No kablooey, so yay!"

Lucy watched as the group visibly relaxed. It felt more like a normal mission now. "Good, well I don't imagine we should stand around mucking about in Wyatt's past any longer than we need to."

"Agreed," Flynn turned to Wyatt. "Is there anything else we should know about?"

"Only that once we leave, Jessica and I continue arguing in the car. From a booth by the window, you should be able to see anyone coming. Once we're ready to leave, you can steal the owner Phil's work truck out back. It's an old red 1980s Chevy that he doesn't use regularly. Easy enough to hotwire. But remember this is just observation. If you see Emma, just follow her. She'll lead you back here anyway. If you get a clear shot, take it, no questions asked. Otherwise, no need to actively involve yourself in the situation. Try to be as unobtrusive as possible."

Jiya exploded in laughter. "If that's possible. He's like a redwood tree." She gestured at Flynn and continued laughing. "I'm sorry, guys, really. Gimme a sec. I think I'm a little loopy right now."

"Ha ha. Come on, shorty." Flynn retorted. "Pelican Lounge is a fifteen minute walk. Let's get going. Be careful you two. We'll see you back here. If you see Emma, touch base via walkie immediately."

Jiya finally regained her composure. "We'll keep our eyes peeled."

Lucy grabbed the woman and gave her a fierce hug. "Be safe out there." She looked up at Flynn and grabbed his hand while still hugging Jiya with one arm. "Both of you."

"I've got Pipsqueak as back-up, I'll do my best." He winked and gestured for Jiya to start walking.

Lucy watched as the disappeared in the woods. Nothing would happen to Jiya with Flynn keeping her safe, but she'd be a liar if she said she didn't worry anyway. She set it aside and focused back on the task at hand.

"We're far enough from the road that we don't need to camouflage the Lifeboat, but we should get to the stake-out point."

"Okay, sounds good. Lead away, Wyatt."

They walked side by side in silence for a few minutes, the night calm, skies clear and dotted with stars.

Wyatt broke the easy quiet. "I've felt guilty for so long about this night. Mostly because Jess died, but also because I was a drunken asshole. I don't know why I got so upset about it. She left him and they'd remained civil if not friends. I had nothing to worry about, but that didn't stop me."

Lucy thought about it for a minute. Needed to leave their baggage out of this if she was gonna be a good friend to him.

"Well maybe this is your chance to make up for that. Maybe this whole Rittenhouse thing is a blessing in disguise. Sure, she's the enemy now, but maybe she's the enemy like Flynn was the enemy." He gave her a questioning look. "When we met Flynn, he was going about things totally the wrong way. There's no way to debate that fact. But he was fighting against Rittenhouse the whole time."

"But Jess's been with them her whole life. They saved her brother." She could tell he was fighting against giving up hope.

"But, now she's got you and your baby to think about. She made the wrong choice once for family. Maybe she'll make the right choice this time for the same reason."

Wyatt nudged her shoulder and indicated they should set up over near a small ravine with a fallen tree perfect for sitting.

Once they got settled, Wyatt pointed to the road, a little to the right of where they were. "That's the spot. Jess and I will pass directly in front of us. I admit that even if Emma isn't here, it'll be a relief to know what happened from Jess' perspective."

"I can only imagine. The two of you have different versions of your life together. Maybe it'll give you a foundation to build on."

Wyatt shook his head, kicking at the rocks beneath their feet. "You are such an amazing person, you know that right?"

"I just really want you to be happy, Wyatt. I know how much you've always wanted to get Jess back. I'd hate for you to give up now, just because it seems hopeless."

"That's what I mean." He half turned on the log to face her. "After everything that happened between us, you still cheer me on. How do you do it?"

Lucy shrugged. "It's just what I do. I want the best for the people I love."

"Of course you do. Because you're you." He gave her an affectionate half hug and they both leaned back on the log. Comfortable for the first time in what felt like forever.

* * *

Flynn's view from the booth allowed him good coverage of the bar. They'd been lucky and gotten one close, but not too close, to the door. Sipping on a bottle of Lagunitas, he considered the pool tables. Looked like one might be opening up and it was close enough to the table that they'd be able to keep it and still see the parking lot. It might actually be better since playing the game would not only help them blend in, but it'd be easier to keep an eye on the room without drawing attention.

He found Wyatt and Jess on the far end of the bar. Sight lines looked good. "Jiya," Flynn drew her attention. "How do you feel about a game of pool?"

"How do you feel about losing?" The table freed up and Jiya was already going for the rack.

Flynn pulled a few dollars out and fed them into the slot. "Jiya the pool shark?" The balls released and the dark haired woman bent to withdraw them.

"You have no idea, Flynn." She slid the rack back and forth and removed it, the balls in a perfect pyramid. "You aren't the only one with a dark past. I'll even let you break."

She wiped the table with him as they played and bantered back and forth. He'd always liked Jiya so he tried to keep her at ease. It worked. He'd love to say he let her win, but he didn't. She kicked his ass. She only let him sink a ball every once in a while. He bent down and banked the three ball into the corner pocket.

"I think she just went to talk to her ex." He kept his eye on Jess, not looking up at Jiya.

When Flynn missed his next shot, she came around the table and lined up her next shot. "I see them. Wyatt's getting tense. Think it's about time?" She leaned down. The six went into the back corner pocket.

He nodded. "You seen Emma anywhere?"

"Nah, no sign of her." Jiya finished slaughtering him.

Flynn glanced at the clock. According to Wyatt, he and Jess left the bar around twelve-thirty. Sometime in the next ten minutes or so. They'd have to be vigilant.

"Let's head back to the booth and finish up our beers. You make a beeline to the ladies room and then slip out back. I'll make it look like I'm just going to grab the car. Sound good?"

She agreed and jerked her head towards the bar. "Looks like they're arguing in earnest now. Man, that's really not a good look on Wyatt," she commented as a stray thought. "But it appears that things stayed mostly the same from the original timeline." Interesting, she thought, the things that changed, but didn't change. Like Jess' brother never died, but she still married Wyatt. But this wasn't the time, so she filed it away to consider later.

"We'll see how long it holds. When they go to pay the tab, you're up."

Jiya made it look like she was gathering up her stuff and when the moment came she finished her beer, stood up, and bent down to make it look like she was going for a kiss. Instead, she whispered in his ear.

"By the way, you're still on probation with me, so if you so much as look at Lucy wrong-"

"You'll impale me and roast me on a spit." Flynn raised an eyebrow in amusement of yet another Lucy champion. She seemed to collect them.

Jiya leaned down like she was flirting. "Nothing quite so quick." She gave him a peck on the nose. "I'll see you out back."

Leaving Flynn with a pleasingly shocked look on his face, she wove through the pool tables and the random patrons. Wyatt and Jess, obviously still fighting, pulled their jackets on and headed for the door with Flynn a few minutes behind. By the time he wound his way around back, she'd already gotten the truck started.

Jiya scooted over when he jumped in the cab of the truck. "Nice job on the truck. And put your seatbelt on, no reason to tempt fate."

He took the back exit and drove straight towards the Lifeboat. They'd need to get there in enough time to ditch the truck before past Wyatt and Jess saw them.

* * *

Flynn and Jiya joined Wyatt and Lucy by the fallen tree, ratcheting up the tension. Emma hadn't showed yet, but that didn't mean anything. The next five minutes would tell. Lucy just wanted it over. Her skin felt tight, stretched too far to fit her frame. She glanced around. No one spoke. Instinct forced them to spread out, but still within earshot of the others.

She thought she heard a car in the distance and a shot of yellow crossed her vision causing her to stumble backwards. _What in the hell was happening?_ Shaking her head, she tried to clear her vision. Looking around Wyatt held Jiya, who'd collapsed. It looked like she was in the middle of a vision.

"Jiya!" Lucy ran towards her friend. Halfway there another streak of color blinded her for a few seconds, orange this time. VIbrant and furious. Flynn caught her arm as she tripped over a tree root.

He pulled her into him, as another streak of color assailed him. Lucy must be suffering from the same. "Lucia, are you okay?" he couldn't help the frantic tenor of his voice.

Just then a car definitely sounded down the road, but there was an odd echo, almost like a ghost remnant.

Jiya say bolt upright in Wyatt's arms. "They killed her!"

Past Wyatt pulled to the side of the road. Jess got out, yelling and swinging her purse over her shoulder. No Emma. But as Past Wyatt went after Jess, another image overlaid it. A second, filmy version of Wyatt and Jess. Hard to discern like static or a skipping record. Second Jess got out, whipping her purse over her shoulder and stalked off. Ghost Wyatt drove off, leaving her behind.

Another ghost-image of a car pulled up from the opposite direction. One minute in motion and the next parked. Benjamin Cahill stepped out. A younger Emma followed behind him. Lucy gasped as a second copy of Jess walked over to them. Two scenes played out in front of them, one a shimmering image the other history unfolding.

They all sat, stunned on the ground, blinking in disbelief, but trying to sort out what they were seeing. It was Emma, but not the Emma from their present.

"It's the other timeline," Jiya explained, short of breath. The chips keep us out of sync with the universe allowing the veil to thin wherever there's been a change."

They all watched rapt as in the replacement timeline Past Wyatt and Jess argued. Eventually Wyatt pleaded her back into the car and they drive off through the hazy image of Benjamin Cahill's black car. She hadn't died, because Wyatt went after her when she got out of the car instead of just driving away.

"We need to get closer," Wyatt said. He looked down at Jiya. "Are you okay to move?"

Jiya looked up and gave him a sad smile. "I'm good, thanks, but we don't need to get closer. I can tell you. I saw it all." Her eyes squinted as if in pain.

She narrated as the scene before them flickered in and out of focus. "Jess thinks Emma and Lucy's dad stopped because they thought she might need help. That's our Emma, just at the beginning of her Rittenhouse career."

An angry flash of red skittered across Lucy's vision and her entire body tensed.

"What is going on with the flashes of color?" Wyatt faced Jiya for an explanation.

"I think it must be the forbidden colors-" she was cut off when the scene before them clarified.

Benjamin Cahill turned to Emma, "You know what to do. Earn your place."

Jess was still drunk enough that she had no idea what was happening. "Do you think we could get going? I'm not feeling so well."

Emma's words came out uncertain. "Is it really necessary? She's innocent."

A cold smirk crossed Lucy's father's face. "It's all for the greater good, Emma. You know that." The silence stretched between them.

"Of course, Mr. Cahill." Emma finally conceded and hung her head in contrition.

"Good girl," he opened the door to the car, "and dispose of her afterwards. I'll be waiting."

The door closed and Emma squared her shoulders.

"What's going on?" Jess asked, teetering on her heels.

And with that. Emma reached out and strangled Jessica Logan.


	7. Chapter Six

Wyatt's brain stuttered and froze. A ringing in his ears. Cold sweat crawled along his skin. Someone called his name. He couldn't breathe to respond. Lucy's voice frantic, he just knelt there on the ground, stones digging into his knees, staring. Emma killed Jess in the aborted timeline. The image of Jess, drunk and clawing for her life seared itself into his memory.

Flynn's face came into view. He punched it.

Lucy cried out and Flynn held up a hand as he shook off the hit. "You back with us?"

Lucy crouched down. "You okay, Wyatt?" Pain flooded his hand, clearing the haze.

Wyatt blinked and nodded, in shock and grasping for a handhold in reality. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm here." He stood and brushed himself off, all the raging emotions inside him partitioned away for later. Soldier first. "It's been Rittenhouse the whole time. How many changes have they made that we don't know about? How long have they been able to scuttle the signature we were using to track them?" Wyatt looked to Jiya. "Any idea?"

She pulled herself together. "None whatsoever. Unfortunately, we only know about this mission because our future selves told us about it. There's so much we don't understand about this. But then, they have the resources of Rittenhouse and we're working out of an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere."

"I think we have to assume they've meddled in all our pasts." Lucy tried to figure out how to put her thoughts into words. "I think...I think they've been working behind the scenes to undermine what we've accomplished together already, focusing on our personal pasts as the key to controlling the future. Think about it. The hit on Agent Christopher. Bringing Jess back. Abducting Jiya so we couldn't follow."

Jiya focused on the Jess portion of the equation. "Yeah, Jess. Here's the thing with that...why did they go back to San Diego in the first place? If Emma killed Jess, there was no reason to go back to San Diego to stop Jess' killer."

Flynn considered what he knew about the redhead. "Emma got recruited by Rittenhouse young and spent ten years in the wilderness, giving her ample time to concoct any number of schemes upon plans upon machinations. Now that we know she's been connected to Lucy's father from the beginning, we have to adjust. Assume Emma's playing a long game none of us even suspected. "

"So who else would Emma have reason to visit-" Lucy's heart sank when she realized the truth. "My father. She could pave the way for him to recruit her in the first place."

Wyatt unraveled it. "With a time machine, Emma could manipulate Cahill in the past to control our future. She must've used Jess being alive to cover for her meeting." His anger bubbled up. "She was nothing but a pawn. They killed her so that when they brought her back, I'd be so desperate I'd bring her straight to the bunker. They rewrote her entire life to secure her loyalty. Once they've gotten that, they just don't have to kill her. Why would they? She's on their side."

"I think we have to work from the belief that every one of the events in our past have been orchestrated by Emma and directed by Rittenhouse." Lucy looked at Flynn, guilt for her family's part in all of this wrapping around her heart. She corrected, "By my father."

A weight settled over the team. No one spoke as they trudged back to the Lifeboat, their footsteps the only accompaniment to their individual thoughts. Lucy's tumbled around in circles. So much of this was caused by her family. What did that mean about her? Everything kept swirling around her. Her journal. Her parents. Her family going back generations.

They got buckled into the Lifeboat and Flynn reached out and took her hand. "What do we do now? Do we continue on with the plan as it stands?"

"Yes. We already expected Rittenhouse's interference in your past. I think we go ahead and then regroup in the bunker while the Lifeboat recharges." Lucy ran her thumb over his fingers.

Jiya brought up the coordinates for Flynn's past. Once again the universe resisted as she tried to guide the time machine into their direct timeline. The tension released and they catapulted through the last barrier.

* * *

August 24, 2014

First thing, they stole a car. Flynn needed to lay low, considering his past self was running around somewhere, so Lucy stayed with him while Jiya and Wyatt grabbed some takeout. They'd get everything set up at the Millers. The sun wouldn't set for a few hours, but they specifically arrived early to keep an eye on the neighborhood.

If Emma showed her face, Lucy would finish what she started in San Francisco.

She and Flynn cleared the top of the bookshelf under the window, giving them a clear view of his house; taking care to remember exactly where the books and knick knacks should be replaced when they finished here. Set out a couple pairs of binoculars and leaned a rifle against the window sill. They prepared for every possibility. Flynn focused on the task at hand, lost in a past he couldn't change. Lorena and Iris. They'd be home right now. He could simply walk in the house and see them again. He sucked in a breath, blinking back the flash of blood.

Lucy stepped up to stand in front of him."Hey, hey. Come back to me." Her thumbs traced over his brow, rubbing away the past.

Warm brown eyes stared up at him in concern. "To have them so close again, knowing that they're going to die tonight." He pulled her close. "I never thought to live through this night again. And to be twice as helpless the second time around."

Lucy took a breath and steeled herself. "I think it's pretty obvious who gave the order to kill your family."

"No, Lucy. No." He cradled her face in his hands. "I couldn't do that to you."

Strong. She needed to be strong when she just wanted to keep him to herself. Maybe she could atone for the sins of her family. "You could get your family back."

"By depriving you of your father. I can't. I won't."

She pulled away from him, didn't dare to hope. Couldn't be selfish now if Flynn could get his wife and daughter back. She'd let him go and wish only the best for him.

"For as long as I've known you, you've wanted to get your family back. I won't stand in the way of that," her heart broke as she said the words and she knew then that she loved this man. It was new, but heartbreakingly real and vulnerable. She turned away, hiding the tears that fell.

"Lucy...Luc, please look at me." She scrubbed at her cheeks and faced him. "In the beginning, I thought of nothing but my family, it's true. But now, you've changed me and I can't go back. Returning to them, I'd have to live a life without you. My family would wake up one day with a different father and husband than the one they had the day before. One who's in love with another woman. When I told you I loved you, Lucy, I made my decision. I stopped looking backwards and started seeing a future. With you."

"Are you sure?" Hope crept over her, tentative at first. "I just want you to be happy."

"You make me happy, Lucy Preston. I'm all yours, if you'll have me."

She stifled a sob. "Oh, thank god, I don't know where I'd find the strength to let you go."

"If I have my way, you'll never have to." Flynn drew closer to her again. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you, but I didn't want you to feel rushed. If this is serious for you though, I have something I'd like you to hold for me."

She nodded up at him. "Anything, Garcia."

The joy on his face mirrored hers. He lifted his hands and slid his wedding ring from his finger. "I was wondering, since you're the historian, if you would hold onto this piece of my past."

She reached up and unclasped the locket. Taking the ring into her care, she slipped it onto the necklace. "I'll keep them safe." Those they had lost kept close to her heart.

He wrapped his arms around her, basking in the safety a bit longer. There was something still bothering her though, he could tell. "Talk to me."

Lucy hesitated, not wanting to disrupt this small bit of peace. In the end, she gave in. "My parents, my grandparents, my entire family, if we never existed, none of this would've happened. You're going to have to relive your family's murder because of mine. I could've stopped this, should have when I had the chance. If I'd taken out the Mothership, none of this would've happened."

"Hey, none of this - none of it - is your fault." He froze in place, outstretched hand reaching for her. "Take out the Mothership?"

She'd forgotten that she never told Flynn about that. "After we took down Rittenhouse, they retaliated by blowing up Mason Industries. You know that. But, while my mom was busy trying to indoctrinate me, I made a different plan."

"You were going to sacrifice yourself." Too many emotions rippled across his features. Grief. Anger. Relief. Terror. He didn't wait for her defense. Flynn crushed her body to his and silenced her excuses with a kiss. Lucy welcomed the pressure of his body, her back against the wall. His lips demanded her surrender and she willingly gave it. His hazel eyes begged her not to leave him. Not like that. His voice rough, "Promise me you will never do that again."

She exhaled all her pent up breath. "I promise. Never again."

Pinning her arms above her head, he kissed her senseless. His lips trailed down her neck, fingers skimming over her breasts, her breath coming in tiny gasps with every glancing touch.

A tinny echo of squealing tires and a bright flash of yellow assaulted Lucy's senses. Flynn clutched a phantom cell phone and felt his body surge to the right despite the being held utterly motionless by the dizzying streak of yellow.

Lucy found her voice first. "Flynn, it's happening again."

* * *

"So, you wanna explain these forbidden colors you mentioned?" Wyatt raised an eyebrow at Jiya as they waited for their food. "No, I didn't miss that part."

"There's another Lifeboat pilot who came back from a mission with visions. I made Mason take me to meet him. He didn't go crazy so much as lose himself in his mind. In a more lucid moment he helped me figure out how to understand what I was seeing; to peel away the layers of a vision. Before he retreated into his brain again, he asked me if I'd seen the forbidden colors yet. I had no idea what he meant until today."

Wyatt rubbed at his eyes, already tired. They needed food and a nap. "I imagine they're forbidden because we're breaking some unwritten rule of the universe by traipsing about in our past. You think that about sums it up?"

Jiya shrugged. "Could also be history we aren't meant to meddle with, who knows. Either makes about as much sense as anything."

Wyatt released a sharp bark of laughter. "Sure, of course, forbidden colors, we'll just add that to our to do list. Why not? Eat a burger, nap, solve the universe's existential crisis. No problem."

"Hey, are you okay? I kinda feel like Mr. I have a pep talk for every occasion just took a vacation." She didn't want to imagine what happened when Wyatt gave up.

He absently grabbed the sugar caddy in front of him, organizing the colored packets. "Every time we think we're close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, we realize that light is just a train barreling right for us."

"So what do we do then?" Jiya worried, The universe kept piling on top of all of them. And the fate of the future rested on their success. No pressure.

Wyatt pushed the caddy away from him as the food arrived. "The same thing we do every time. Get out of the way of the train and then figure out how to stop it." Grabbing their take-out, he looked right at Jiya. "Save Rufus, save the world."

She finished her soda and followed behind him, clambering into the tan SUV and shutting the door. Wyatt pulled out into the street and the silence grew between them. Jiya tried to observe him without him noticing, but he was Wyatt, so that didn't work.

"I...Can I? Um, that is-" Her words stumbled over themselves.

He gave her a crooked smile. "Stop staring and just ask me whatever it is."

"I wanna be sensitive here, cuz, we're friends, remember. And, please, don't bite my head off, but it seems like for so long you wanted to save your wife. It's been your mission from day one. You even got court martialed." She quieted her voice, "Then you fell for Lucy and it was very promising. Just when things are getting started between the two of you, Jess comes back."

Wyatt's fingers tightened around the steering wheel instead of flipping on the stereo. "Get to the point please, Jiya."

Turning towards him, she propped an elbow up on the back of the seat. "As much as I think you liked Lucy, maybe were even falling in love with her, I always got the feeling you weren't 'all in,' you know? Like you loved Jess so much you couldn't let go of her, but you knew you should. Because she was dead." She paused, giving him time to stop her.

When he didn't, she continued, "But Jess isn't dead, Wyatt. Sure, she's Rittenhouse, so there's bound to be some issues there. But, after everything you went through trying to save her, it doesn't make sense to stop just because of a little thing like she's the enemy."

He kept his eyes firmly planted on the road ahead. "I never meant to hurt Lucy, you have to know that."

"Of course not, Wyatt. I could never think that about you." Jiya felt for him. "I can't imagine how hard it's been for you." .

"I should've done better. Lucy tried to tell me to get my head out of my ass. I didn't listen." That epiphany happened far too late. "But being Lucy, of course she believes the best of everyone. She thinks that Jess could still be swayed to fight on the right side of history too. I'd like to believe her." He loosened his grip on the wheel. "If Flynn can change, anyone can."

Jiya tucked her legs up under her. In for a penny, in for a pound. "How are you doing about the whole Flynn thing anyway?"

He affected an air of bafflement. "What do you mean? Him helping with missions? He's come in handy on occasion."

Wyatt thoroughly enjoyed Jiya's squirming. "Oh, um, never mind. I shouldn't-Frak!-Totally stuck my foot in my mouth there, huh?"

He burst out laughing, couldn't help it. "Jiya, it's okay," he tried to pull himself together. Definitely need food and a nap. "Lucy and I talked. We're good. I'm not gonna start some macho fist fight with him or anything."

"Um, remember when that actually happened? And Lucy got hurt?" She loved that girl like a sister and didn't want her caught in the middle of another fight. "You can see why I'm concerned, right? You haven't exactly handled Flynn/Lucy interactions well in the past."

Wyatt sobered. Thinking about Rufus. "I haven't told you this because we're all just trying to keep putting one foot in front of the other at this point. But when Jess took you, Rufus let me know in no uncertain terms that he blamed me for it. That if we didn't save you, he didn't think he could forgive me." He couldn't look at her, thinking of how angry Rufus had been, rightfully so. "Now I don't think I can forgive myself if we don't save him. I was self-centered and stupid and everybody else around me suffered for it."

He left the vehicle down the road from the house, grabbed the food, and got out. Jiya joined him as they walked through the wooded area that covered their tracks as they headed back to Lucy and Flynn.

"Rufus couldn't hold a grudge to save his life," Jiya said, a wry, sad smile playing across her face. "But there's enough blame to go around. We all need to stop obsessing over the past and-" Whatever she was going to say next got lost in a haze of yellow.

The vision took her down to her knees.

* * *

Lucy clung to Flynn's arm. "Why is this happening now, I don't understand? You said it happened late at night, right? This was just supposed to be surveillance."

"I did. Is Emma here? Did we miss her?" They moved as one to the window, Lucy bending down and grabbing one set of binoculars for herself, while handing the other to Flynn. She slipped to the left side of the curtain and peered out at the windows of his house, giving her a clear view of almost every room. Flynn took a lookout in the center so he remained unseen but had an unobstructed view of the street in both directions.

 _"Luc, please, I beg you."_

Flynn's voice frantic, but too quiet. "What'd you say?" Lucy asked as she focused on looking for his wife and daughter.

"Huh? I didn't say anything." A black sedan screamed around the corner several houses down.

"I could've sworn you-"

"Hold on, there's a car headed this direction, in a hurry. What do you see in the house?" He grabbed the rifle propped against the sill. He blinked. "Hold on, it's hazy, like with Emma-"

Lucy stilled. "Flynn…"

 _"I'll keep you safe, I promise,"_ She heard his voice again. The pieces tumbled into place and shook her entire world. Instead of Flynn's wife and daughter, she saw herself. A ghost of a life she didn't remember, slipping in and out of existence.

"What?" He glanced at her, and she looked stunned he was almost afraid to ask. "Can you see Lorena or Iris?"

"Flynn, who's driving that car?" She reached in her shirt and withdrew the locket, never taking her focus off an alternate version of herself as she placed a necklace gently in a blue backpack. Lucy sharpened the view through the lenses. A flash of St. Christopher.

Slashes of orange disoriented Flynn, but he gathered his wits as the scene clarified and he watched as a ghostly version of himself jumped out of the car, clutching a cell phone.

"I am." He turned his attention to the house. He reached over and grabbed Lucy's hand as they watched as the rooms flickered between the reality Flynn knew and one where they were together. Ready to fight for each other. Ready to run.

This time they both heard Lucy's voice whispering, faraway, unreachable. _"I love you, Garcia. Forever."_

A furious bolt of red shattered the scene.


	8. Chapter Seven

May 15, 2018

 _I told you I would always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?_  
 _Well…you were dead._  
 _Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while._

The Princess Bride echoed down the hallway where Jess remained concealed. Peaking out, she spotted Mason and Agent Christopher passed out in front of the television. It's why she waited until well past midnight to sneak in. It'd been easy enough to knock out the night guards, she'd memorized their routines first thing. Wyatt liked to take her above ground at night to lay on the picnic table and stare at the stars after everyone fell asleep..

She needed to talk to Wyatt. Needed him to understand why she made the choices she had. No matter that Rittenhouse raised her, Jess loved him. It killed her to think he might hate her for the deception. Before she woke everyone by opening Wyatt's door, she needed to know if the Lifeboat was there. No reason to draw attention if she didn't have to. It couldn't be seen from her hiding spot. She'd have to get closer. The sound of the television should cover her footsteps as long as she was careful.

The blond touched the weapon tucked into the small of her back and slipped from her hiding spot, noticing two sleeping figures as she wove her way through the tables, thankful for her soft soled shoes. An empty room where the Lifeboat should be greeted her.

She swore silently. Glancing back the way she came, her peripheral vision caught on the computers. Maybe she could figure out where they'd gone. Go after him. Plead her case all the way through time if she had to. She needed his forgiveness.

Of course, that meant stealing the Mothership. Emma had no idea Carol had arranged for her to learn how to fly the Mothership. The training had been rigorous given her only passing scientific understanding, but she'd been determined. With Wyatt away on missions for most of the last year of her marriage, she had plenty of time to devote to her studies.

Kidnapping Jiya had been Emma's plan, stealing the Lifeboat, a distraction, The Time Team would somehow find a way to get it back. Emma wanted Jiya and Rufus dead. That way, even if they had the Lifeboat, they had no one to fly it. In the end, Jess' ability to pilot the time machine remained a secret.

The blond jiggled the mouse to reveal the computer screen. Damn it. It definitely wasn't coordinates. Something with the team and DNA strands. Might be important, though she couldn't be sure. Searching the desktop, she had a moment of deja vu when she found a jump drive and plugged it in. It'd come in handy, she had no doubt. Even if only to keep her alive and useful to Emma.

When the files finished uploading, she tucked the drive in her pocket, and shrugging off the unease that crept over her, descended the stairs. Almost there. Mason snorted in his sleep and turned over, startling Jess and knocking her into one of the kitchen chairs. The screech across the floor woke both the older man and Agent Christopher.

Denise got to her feet immediately and saw Jess whip out her gun, pointing it directly at her. Grabbing hers before she flipped it, beer bottles and a half-eaten bowl of popcorn spraying the couch in front of them. Keeping her weapon trained on the blond, she pulled Mason down behind the makeshift barricade.

Jess hunched down between the tables and chairs. "Please don't try it, Denise, I really don't want to have to shoot you."

"It's Agent Christopher to you. And I absolutely will shoot you." She glanced at the older man as he scrambled to his feet.

Mason poked his head above the barrier, to Denise's dismay. "Jess, you really don't want to do this. I know you don't. We were friends, weren't we?"

Jess stared the man down, keeping the gun trained on its target. "I only came to talk to Wyatt, please don't force my hand. Just let me walk out of here."

"You know I can't do that. You're a traitor to your country." Agent Christopher calculated her odds against the woman, adjusting her stance for better aim.

"Stop!" Jess barked, gaze skittering around the room, not liking her chances of making it to the exit. Damn it, this was gonna get messy. She'd lay down cover fire and the extra seconds should give her time to bolt towards the hallway, her only chance of escape. She turned, ready to shoot and run, and heard the sound of two cocking shotguns. An older version of Lucy and  
Wyatt blocked her path to freedom..

"You really don't want to do what you're about to do," Lucy warned.

Jess did a double-take. "Wait, what?" Her gun arm started to drop and Agent Christopher took advantage of the mistake to rise above the level of the wooden coffee table, giving her a clear shot at the blond.

"Stand down, Agent Christopher." Wyatt commanded. "You're going to let her go."

Disappointment, confusion, and anger flooded her system. "Wyatt, why on earth would I do that?"

"Because I'm asking you to." Wyatt stated plainly. "You don't have all the information."

"When do I ever?" She didn't lower her weapon, but allowed Wyatt to take the lead. "I want a full report after this."

He focused back on Jessica. "This ends one of two ways, Jess. Either you turn and walk out of here right now or you don't walk out of here at all. It's your choice. I know what I'd prefer."

* * *

August 22, 2014

"You okay?" Jiya nodded and Wyatt rose from where he knelt beside her. He'd seen the colors again, but had no idea what happened. He could've sworn he heard squealing tires and a slamming door, but couldn't be sure. "We need to get up there."

"Just give me a second." She shuddered at such a massive change to Lucy and Flynn's timeline.

He paced as he searched their surroundings for any signs of Emma. "What happened, Jiya? I couldn't see anything. I need to talk to Flynn and Lucy, see if they caught anything."

Should she tell him? Would it better coming from her? She stood and noticed too late Wyatt running towards the house. She picked up the food and followed, catching up to him at the back door.

Grabbing his shoulder, she stopped him before he opened it. "Hey, Wyatt. This is not a time for you to bull in a china shop it."

"It obviously concerns Flynn, don't worry, I'll be sensitive." He stepped through the door into the kitchen.

"Wyatt, seriously, stop." Jiya kept her voice low.

He swiveled to her, irritated. "We don't have time for this. I need to know what happened so we can adjust the plan."

"Well you're going to have to make time." She softened her tone, Wyatt always thought like a soldier first. None of them could've seen this coming. "This isn't just about Flynn."

* * *

Flynn and Lucy knelt on the floor, stunned. Hazy after images of a life lived but forgotten battled with the life they remembered.

"We were…" Lucy attempted to reconcile two worlds. Even as the images faded, the truth remained behind, etched into her bones.

"Lucy…" Flynn reached out to her and she remembered the feel of his fingers playing against her skin, drawing from her a symphony.

She pulled away and he withdrew, fingers curling in, the feel of her body molding to his lingered, the feel of her, her heat, her passion.

"They stole our entire lives." She tried to hold onto the memories, but they slipped away. The loss overwhelmed her.

Flynn's arms felt empty, so he filled them with her smaller body. Lucy clung to him as if she could somehow bring back that phantom life.

"Lorena and Iris," he wove his fingers into her hair, "they were replacements for you, but I mourn them just the same."

Lucy allowed her tears to fall against his chest. "And we don't even get to keep the memories."

"We'll make new ones." He lifted her face and their lips met, begging for tomorrow.

They parted when they heard back door open, indicating Wyatt and Jiya had returned. How much did they know? Did Jiya see the whole thing? The smell of burgers wafted up and Lucy realized just how hungry she was. They made their way down the stairs hand in hand, both afraid to let go.

One look at Jiya told her that she'd seen everything through her visions. "Burgers?" she asked, too tired to elaborate anything yet.

"Right here." Jiya held up the bags. "Let's head to the table. We'll refuel and then regroup."

They ate in silent exhaustion, too much had been taken from them and they just wanted Rufus back.

Wyatt spoke first, "So, would anyone care to explain what just happened?" He couldn't make a plan to move forward if he didn't have the whole story. "I'm kinda in the dark here."

Flynn looked to Lucy, leaving it to her to decide what to tell Wyatt. Gathering herself, she took a deep breath, unsure how to begin. Emma stole their love and the residual slivers of happiness taunted her as they slipped away.

Jiya decided to rip the bandaid off. "So, apparently, Flynn and Lucy were married in an aborted timeline."

Wyatt schooled his face into neutrality. Wouldn't let his churning emotions dictate his reaction. "So, someone, and I feel like it's safe to say probably Emma, changed yet another piece of our past."

Lucy found her words, "Yes, the only difference this time is the fact that we have no idea what she changed. Whatever it was happened before we became a team. Any effects have already taken place." The result, the cavern inside her. Missing history. Their history. She felt fractured, like fragments of another Lucy spun away from her while she tried to grasp the pieces. Flynn laid his hand over hers, bringing her back to this reality. "I wish I knew more."

Jiya wanted to comfort her friend, but couldn't. "It's not just the big moments, the oh shit moments. Could something as simple as turning left instead of right. Our decisions are that important in the grand scheme of things. We never know which choices are incidental and which are not."

Wyatt considered the all the things Lucy had shared with him about her life. Two things stuck out. "Your car accident and the job at Stanford."

"What?" Lucy's brain stuttered.

He continued, "Those are the two times in your life that you made decisions that would have definitely changed the course of your life. You said Amy tried to talk you into pursuing your dream of being a musician, right?"

"Yes, she wanted my happiness more than I did, I think. I always focused on making my mother proud of me."

"Could it be your sister's disappearance that affected the timeline?" Flynn asked, trying to help her find her path forward.

Lucy thought, "I don't think so." Focusing became easier with Flynn guiding her. "I mean, I suppose it's possible, but I didn't make that decision and it's not like my mother knew about it. I didn't drop out of college simply because of her. Besides, it could just as easily have been your life she changed."

"I don't think so," Flynn replied. "I lived in this house for both of the timelines. No, I think it's gotta be something in your past."  
He gave her a soft look, wanting her to know he was right there, with her, and nothing would tear him away.

Everything kept coming back to her family. Again, she wondered if history might benefit from the elimination of her family altogether. "So it had to be when I didn't take the job at Oberlin."

"Who tried to talk you out of that?" Jiya didn't want to push, but the more information they had to fight with the better.

"My mother. She was adamant that I take a job at Stanford. Thinking back on it, I really stagnated there. Not that it isn't a great university, but I felt like I was constantly held back. Before we met, I was up for tenure, but that got derailed."

Jiya rolled around the problem in her brain. "But that wouldn't have kept you from being recruited by Agent Christopher. You're family's Rittenhouse, so you were stuck anyway you look at it. I hate to say it, but I can't think of any reason to change this," she pursed her lips hesitant, "except to keep you and Flynn apart. You and Flynn were ready to run and fight in the aborted timeline, right?"

"From what I can remember, yes." Flynn closed his eyes, trying to dredge up the fleeting memories. "It's slipping away."

Lucy blinked back unbidden tears. "Mostly, I'm left with the feeling that we'd prepared for it. Like we knew the day would come we'd have to run."

"Seems to me then that you guys became a formidable team and Emma couldn't risk you fighting side by side. But she failed," Jiya choked up thinking of Rufus, "and you guys still found each other."

Wyatt looked uncomfortable, like he wanted to say something, but was trying to be tactful.

"Whatever it is, just say it." As usual, no matter what, Flynn cut through the bullshit.

Wyatt pushed his takeout box away. "Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but something just occurred to me. If Amy never existed, she never talked to Lucy the night of her accident. If Lucy's not distracted, does she still wreck the car? If not, then what happened? I don't know how we didn't realize this sooner, but, once again, we're faced with a big old question mark."

The group sat, shocked into silence, remnants of their dinner forgotten on the table in front of them.

Lucy pulled herself together. "This doesn't change the plan. If anything, it means we've got a leg up since I still have Flynn no matter how hard she tried to take him from me. I won't let that happen again." She'd burn down the entire world.

He nodded, "Alright then, you heard the lady. We continue. Lucy, you and Flynn get some rest. We still have a few hours before tonight. I'll wake you, if anything alters the plan." Wyatt looked to Jiya. "You and I will keep an eye out in case Emma shows. If nothing happens, we'll switch off at midnight and Lucy and Flynn can take over watch. This new information leads me to believe that Emma is focused on Lucy's past, but I'm not willing to risk it by leaving early."

They parted, Flynn and Lucy up the stairs together, while Wyatt and Jiya cleaned up after their meal.

Jiya drew Wyatt's attention, touching his arm as he passed her. "That can't have been easy."

"No, of course not." Wyatt wouldn't meet her eyes. "But it's about time I start making things easier on her rather than harder."

She didn't resist the urge to hug him.

* * *

May 15, 2018

Jess faced weapons every way she turned. "I came to apologize, to make you understand."

"You have a funny way of showing it." His stare bored into her. "You were about to shoot my friends."

Jess cowered, "No! I wouldn't have."

"Yes, you would have. I know," his words soft, but menacing. "I remember. And despite that, I'm giving you a second chance."

"I love you," she pleaded.

"Lucy seems to believe you do. Even after everything. But she's always been the more hopeful of the two of us." He didn't dare look at Connor or Denise to gauge their reactions. He'd have questions to answer, but first things first. "Now, I told you to leave. Take this opportunity. Change who you become."

Three weapons followed her as she stumbled away. Lucy pulled a walkie from her pocket. "Jiya, she's coming up. Remember, let her go. Focus on the guards."

A staticy "Heard," echoed through the otherwise quiet room.

Wyatt started to explain, but Agent Christopher beat him to it. "Please tell me you didn't dabble in the timeline just to save our lives. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful, but this is awfully close to playing God."

"You don't understand," Lucy said, a fierce certainty underlying her words.

"Of that I am sure, but what could possibly justify this?" Denise crossed to him, determined to get answers.

Mason laid a hand on her arm. "Give him a moment. He's struggling with it."

Denise studied the man before her. His face haggard, shoulders hunched. "I'm sorry. But please, I need to understand."

"She killed you. Both of you. Left your bodies lying for us to find when we come back from Flynn's past." They collapsed into chairs on opposite sides of the table. Lucy moved behind him, lending him silent support. Mason hung back, half seated on the back of the couch. "It was too much. We fell apart after that. The entire mission failed. Epically. And instead of saving Rufus, half the team was dead. Since then, it's just been me and Lucy trying to stitch up the timelines. Jiya barely speaks to us anymore. She only came on this mission…"

He scrubbed his palms over his face and Lucy took over. "It's our last hope. The future," she swallowed hard, "it's not good, Denise."

* * *

August 22, 2014

Flynn curled around Lucy in the darkened master bedroom. She'd said nothing since they walked up the stairs an hour ago. He breathed in the faded scent of eucalyptus and mint that clung to her hair. What he wouldn't give to take her away from all of this. God he loved this woman. Until their lives settled down, he'd be her strength when she needed it.

"It's like there's something chasing us, 'Cia." Trailing her fingers along his forearm, she felt beaten. "And there's no way for us to run fast enough to get away."

Leaning down, he kissed her temple, smoothing her hair from her cheeks. "I know they've taken a lot of from you, but you're Lucy Preston, you always find a way."

She turned, cupping his jaw and placing a soft kiss on his lips. "I wish I could remember our other life."

"Do you remember anything?" His fingers lingered along her neckline as if touching her could bring back those years they spent together.

"Very little. A feeling that we shared something intense and powerful." She withdrew the locket from her shirt. "You gave this to me in that life too. I can still feel it in the palm of my hand when I was packing to run. But the clearest image I have is of a picture of us on our wedding day. We're in front a single room stone church on the edge of the water, surrounded by mountains."

Flynn's eyes filled with tears. "My family chapel. I was baptized there." He pulled her in. "I'd like to take you there someday."

"I'd like that." She burrowed into his embrace, trying desperately to get closer to him. The theft of their love thrashing at the cages of her heart. "Tell me what you remember."

His hands roamed, down her back, across her stomach, slipping down to massage her thigh. "I remember how much I loved you." She lifted her leg to rest on top of his. "I remember worrying that I'd fail you, but that as long as I died protecting you, it'd be worth it."

Scraping her nails across his stomach, she dipped her fingertips just on the inside his waistband. "Never. You can never leave me."

"Never, I promise." He pushed her onto her back, lifting the edge of her shirt. "As long as you promise me the same."

"I promise." She arched her back into his touch, he rubbed his thumbs under her rib cage and placed a kiss on her sternum. Inhaling a harsh breath, her words barely a whisper, "If only we were alone."

"You wanna know what else I remember?" His lips trailed between her breasts, up over her clavicle, stopping just behind her earlobe. "I remember what you feel like when I slip inside the warm silk of you." He pulled back, extending his arms so he could look right at her as he said, "How you scream my name in the throes of passion when we fall over the edge together."

"Garcia," her voice husky.

"One more promise," a teasing smile played across his lips. "One of these days we're going to be alone again and I'm going to etch the memory of us into your soul. I'm going to need more than one lifetime with you."

As he brought his mouth to hers, parting her lips and kissing her like tomorrow might never come, she believed him. And she would find him wherever he went, in this life or the next.

* * *

May 15, 2018

"What kind of lovesick idiot are you?" Emma paced the concrete floor of the warehouse.

Jess averted her eyes, trying to avoid the worst of the redhead's anger. "I had to try."

"No, you didn't, you simpering fool." She leveled the blond with a glare. "Did you kill any of them, at least? Preferably Agent Christopher, that woman is too smart for her own good."

Jess thought about what the future version of Wyatt had revealed. If she had killed Denise, this conversation would probably end very differently.

"No, but I did get something, not sure what yet." She reached into her pocket and handed the zip drive to Emma. "There's something about DNA strands and the team. I'm not a scientist, but it looked important."

"I wonder…" She took the drive from the blond, turning it over in her hand. "Anthony talked about DNA as the key to unlocking timelines." Emma raised her gaze to Jess. "You may have just saved your own life."

"What do you think it is?" she asked the woman who'd taken over Rittenhouse.

"The final key I need to end it once and for all." Emma smirked. "Time to visit an old friend."


	9. Chapter Eight

_May 4th, 2016_

The bell above the door jingled as Emma entered and strode to the third booth on the right, interrupting his breakfast. "What are you doing here? You know you can't-" Anthony put down his fork and really looked at the redhead standing in front of him. "Ah. I see. What year are you from-No, don't answer that." He stabbed the yolk, yellow puddling around his hash browns. "What do you want?"

"I have a present for you." Tempting him.

The bald man eyed the jump drive. "You're supposed to be in a cabin in the 1882. I covered for you, I got you out. I'm already in far over my head. I just wanted to be on the right side of history and now I'm party to...No, I can't do more. "

"I suppose I expected that." Pulling her hand back out of reach, she made to walk away. "How's Karen doing, by the way? She forgiven you yet?"

"Stop. Leave my wife out of this." Hanging his head, Anthony pushed his plate to the side and indicated she should join him. "What is it?"

"Nothing you haven't already considered." She lowered herself into the red vinyl seat and slid the drive across the speckled linoleum surface. "Just a little hint, nothing more. If there's anyone who can crack it, it's you."

"Stop with the crap, Emma. What have you got? I'd like to get back to my breakfast."

"The possible solution to traversing personal timelines…"

Anthony raised a brow as he eyed the small item between them. "You've already figured out one loophole, being that your here now, but you'll never be satisfied, will you?"

"Tell me you aren't intrigued." Emma crossed her arms and leaned back, baiting him. She just needed to tug the hook a little.

"Being intrigued doesn't negate my concern about allowing you to traipse through every timeline without restraint. Why'd you come back, anyway? Why don't you just ask future me?"

She schooled her face, "I have my reasons."

He pushed the drive back to her. "Then I'm not interested. Tell me your reasons or leave me to my bacon."

 _What would he believe, how could she make him act?_ "It's Flynn's family." That should work. Anthony was always a sucker for a damsel in distress. "I can't tell you too much, but we think we can stop the bloodshed and save them, but this is the only way. I need you to figure this out and give it back to me as soon as you can." She refrained from telling him the fate of the universe depended on it. That'd be a step, or five, too far. It did, but not in any way that he'd understand, or approve of.

Anthony studied her. This woman he and Rufus stayed up nights with when the science and the secrets of the universe beckoned. Who'd begged him to aid in her escape.

He shoved the drive into his back pocket. "Alright. Now, get out of here before you draw attention to yourself."

Impulsively, she reached out and placed her hand over his. "Take care of yourself, Anthony." If she could just get rid of Lucy, the pieces would fall into place, maybe it'd even save Anthony. Once she controlled the timelines, everything would change, she would finally implement her vision.

~*~*~*~  
 _August 23, 2014_

"How do you want to handle this, Flynn?" Wyatt leaned on the heavy wooden desk while Jiya scanned the street. Lucy gathered everything together in case they needed to run.

She'd been quiet, but Flynn knew her response, would back his decision. Pushing off the wall, he dove in headfirst. "You and I take the outside of the house, Jiya and Lucy stay inside keeping an eye on the high road. Anyone shows up, they can let us know. And if trouble shows up, you and I are already on the ground." He needed to stay focused. Needed to separate all the information from the emotions swirling inside him.

"Sounds like a plan," Wyatt started gathering gear.

Flynn crossed to Lucy who'd moved to the window. "Are you okay with this? With witnessing their deaths? I wouldn't ask, except-I just can't."

"I've got you." Wrapping her pinky around his, she assured him, "For I have promises to keep…"

"And miles to go before we sleep." Flynn pulled her in for a quick hug, kissed her forehead, and joined Wyatt.

The soldier handed him a weapon and a walkie. "We've got this. If Emma shows, we'll end it once and for all."

"Do you honestly think she'll be here?" Flynn asked him, his voice quiet.

Wyatt shook his head in the negative. He sighed, "No, I don't. I think this is all about Lucy, unfortunately. But we can't take the risk that we're wrong."

"Agreed."

The two men headed outside leaving Jiya and Lucy alone, staring out the window. Fifteen minutes and counting; no sign of Emma.

Watching the motionless house, Jiya reached out to her friend. "How are you doing, Lucy? Really? I mean, the television show of the universe just smacked you with a big old plot twist. That's gotta be confusing."

Lucy didn't look away from the place she once lived. "Actually it isn't. It's weird, for sure, but it clarifies a lot of things. Something drew me to him from the very beginning. I never felt the fear I should, even when he kidnapped me. I knew, deep down, he wouldn't hurt me. Ever. Does that sound weird?"

Jiya stayed quiet, considering. "I don't think so, but that's coming from a girl who gets visions of the future that's also the past. Who am I to say what's normal or not?"

She smiled, "I suppose you're right. But honestly, I'm just glad I understand it now." Her heart created space for Flynn, real space, not a drawer, a whole house.

"I bet. That had to be disconcerting. You're supposed to hate the guy, but you always fought for his redemption. In hindsight, you saw the truth of Flynn. Your soul remembered and I think you reminded him of a life he couldn't remember. You gave him a reason to try."

Lucy caught something in her peripheral. Focusing in, a figure in all black crept along the right side of the house. "You seeing what I'm seeing?"

Jiya zoomed in on the scene. "Yup. Got one of the left. Looks like it's go time." Grabbing the walkie, she continued, "Guys, we've got movement. One on either side, long black car down two blocks to the left."

Flynn's voice crackled over the radio. "Confirmed. Be ready to move. If we're spotted, make a beeline for the Lifeboat and cover our retreat."

"Gotcha." Jiya clicked off.

Wyatt looked to Flynn, "You good?"

Face stern, he nodded. Words failed him. The urge to slaughter the men who were about to murder his family prickled at the back of his neck. At least there were no colors indicating further alterations to the timeline. The damage already done. Lucy's face kept him grounded.

The wind ceased and night encroached. Seconds stretched as he waited for the muzzle flash. His heart constricted and he forgot to breathe, fighting the emotional inertia that pushed him forward. Screamed at him to run into the house, to save Iris and Lorena; dragging them out of the line of fire. If Wyatt had flinched in the slightest, he might've broken. He resisted. Every muscle tensed and craving the fight.

The muffled shots echoed in his bones, the memory of the night as fresh as ever. His memories tumbled over one another, crashing through the house, their names hoarse on his lips. Tears, blood, terror. Flight, the fight already lost.

Wyatt brought him back. "Black car or shooters? Which do you think is more important?"

Flynn shook the weight of the past and zeroed in on the future. On those he could save. "Car. Shooters are more than likely just paid mercenaries. They'd lead us to the car anyway."

Wyatt got on the walkie. "Sit tight, we're gonna take a closer look. See what we can gather."

Lucy and Jiya instinctively reached for each other as their brains made sense of the scene that unfolded before them. The deliberate shots that took Lorena first and then Iris as she lay in her bed, thankfully unaware that death came to claim her. The blood spray, dark against white walls. Flynn stumbling through the house, hand dragging through his wife's blood as he raced towards his daughter's room. Too late. Despite knowing all of this beforehand, the two women didn't look away until they lost Past Flynn in his flight from the house. Only then did they turn their attention back to the guys.

They crept between the houses, sticking to the dark spaces. Wyatt held up a fist and Flynn paused. He turned to Flynn and mouthed, "There's another car."

Flynn jerked his head to the left and Wyatt followed to a line of new pines planted half a block up. The new SUV pulled up alongside the first. The assassins in black slid into the SUV. Two windows rolled down and words passed between the vehicles, but they were too far away to hear anything. WIth no way to get any closer without drawing attention, Wyatt pulled a small notebook from his pocket, scratching down the license plate of the first car. They stayed in position until the SUV also left and Wyatt got the second license plate as well.

"Let's head back."

 _May 15, 2018_

Mason knelt down, sweeping the shards of glass into the dustpan. Denise righted the table again and organized the room as best she could.

"What are we going to tell them?" The older man stood and dumped the remains into the garbage.

She paused and gave him a side glance, "I don't imagine lying would work well, do you?"

"No, I don't imagine so." He gave a small laugh. "The truth usually outs anyway. No use to fight it, I don't suppose."

The alarm sounded, signaling the return of the Lifeboat. She tied off the bag of garbage and handed it to Mason to take to the incinerator. Rolling the stairs up to the time machine, she waited. The hiss of air indicated the door opening and Denise held her breath. She wanted to know it was over. That the worst case scenario had been averted and they could simply go about their lives. Wyatt climbed out first, followed by Flynn, his arm around Lucy. Jiya brought up the rear and they looked...beaten. Whatever happened in the past had taken its toll on the team.

They gathered around her and Mason joined them. "Was she there?" Denise needed to know.

"No." Wyatt's shoulders sagged. "Emma's still out there."

She hugged him and grabbed Lucy's hand. "I'm sorry." The younger woman blinked back unshed tears.

"We've got a lot to explain." He pulled back and headed into the kitchen. Jiya started a pot of coffee and Flynn grabbed a box of cereal. Wyatt scanned the room, the chairs and tables out of place. "What happened here?"

"Let's start with you guys. Update me on the mission." She crossed the room to pour a cup of coffee.

He didn't have a lot of patience left so he laid it out. "Emma killed Jess in my original timeline and Flynn and Lucy were married in an aborted timeline. Rittenhouse has been trying to pick apart the team the whole time."

The mug froze halfway to her lips. "What?" Her head swiveled back and forth over the group.

Lucy sagged into one of the chairs. "There's a lot to catch you up on."

"Agreed, but I still want to know…" Wyatt gestured around the room.

Agent Christopher sighed. "Jess showed up looking for you." He schooled his face into neutral, but not before she caught a flicker of emotion. "It got ugly, quick. Future you and Lucy showed up and saved us all. Or, at least we hope so. Apparently, we lost against Rittenhouse in their timeline and now they're on a Hail Mary mission to save the future."

"Oh for frak's sake." Jiya joined Lucy handing her a cup. "Does it ever end?"

"Probably not anytime soon," Mason shrugged.

Wyatt pulled himself together. "Alright. Let's hash this out, see what we can figure. Then we need to know as much as we can about the night of Lucy's accident."

Two hours and pots of coffee later they'd cobbled together a basic understanding and a tentative plan. Which really just meant they knew where they were headed, but everything would go to shit when they got there. They were all too tired to waste energy on the nit-picky details. Nothing could be done during the event and everything after depended on Emma's actions. Preparation would only get them so far; a response in real time might be their only hope.

As far as the post-apocalyptic future their future versions hinted at, all they had to go on was faith. Agent Christopher and Mason sat before them, for now that would be enough. Silence descended and they stared off, each wrapped up in loss and exhaustion.

Flynn lifted his head from the table. "We need Guardians." Five questioning faces turned toward him. "Of the Galaxy, obviously. Everybody, butts on the couches, I'll make popcorn. We may be tired, but we're nowhere near ready to sleep. Ergo, Guardians."

"Anybody want a beer?" Lucy looked around and grabbed a six pack out of the refrigerator.

Jiya searched through the dvds until she found the right one, popping it into the player and pressing play. Mason ran to get extra blankets from storage and Agent Christopher tidied up the remains of their planning session. Flynn set the bowls of popcorn on the coffee table and Lucy handed out the cold beers.

The movie started without them as they milled about situating themselves, but as Redbone's _Come and Get Your Love_ started, Denise began to dance. Mason came back into the room, arms full, and froze when he saw her.

"What is even happening right now?" He asked as he dropped the blankets on the couches.

Their fearless leader smiled. "Oh, don't pretend you don't want to." She wiggled her fingers, daring him to join her. He obliged her. Flynn plucked the bottle out of Lucy's hands and twirled her around the kitchen. Jiya dragged Wyatt out of the chair and got him to help her move the kitchen tables out of the way, giving them more room.

So as Peter Quill danced his way across an alien world, the team gave up their burdens to the universe, trusting that the world wouldn't end while they danced. For those bare moments, they weren't the Time Team, they were simply family. By the time they collapsed onto the couches in front of the television, they felt lighter. Even if they still had to save the world again tomorrow, tonight, at least, they smiled and laughed with each other.

Agent Christopher settled onto the couch with Mason, who laid his head in her lap and propped his feet up on the arm. She let him get comfortable and adjusted slightly herself. Jiya and Wyatt occupied the space across the way. Flynn and Lucy snuggled into one another on the last couch.

By the time the screen faded to black, only Lucy remained awake. Looking around, she saw Mason passed out on one couch and Jiya sleeping in the two chairs turned into a makeshift bed. Wyatt and Agent Christopher bundled off shortly after the Guardians saved the universe. But Lucy always stayed awake to the end of the movie. Always. She loved it that much. Almost as much as she loved watching Flynn sleep.

His features relaxed in rest, at peace. But every so often a sleepy smile of pure joy flickered into life, disappearing so fast she almost missed it the first time. Now, she waited for it. When it showed up again, she had to kiss him softly, trying to share a bit of that joy.

"Lucy…" Flynn blinked up at her.

She traced her thumb over his lips, running her fingers over his stubble. "Let's go to bed."

He stretched, using the excuse to pull her down for another kiss. "As you wish."

They stood and Lucy nudged her friend on the shoulder. "Hey, Ji, honey." When her friend opened her eyes, she kept her voice quiet, saying, "Couch is free if you wanna move over." She knew Jiya wouldn't go back to her room, not until Rufus came back to them.

"M'kay," JIya mumbled.

Flynn tugged up Mason's blanket and then followed the love of his life back to the room he already thought of as theirs. In only two days, Lucy slipped into his life as if she'd been by his side the whole time. And maybe she had. From time to time, it felt like that. She walked right into the room and his heart hammered inside his chest. He hesitated before entering and closing the door behind him.

Lucy removed his locket, holding it in her palm for a few seconds before placing it gently on the desk. She turned to him, a fire he hadn't expected in her eyes batting the need for sleep. Unzipping her hoodie, she eased it off her shoulders, a simple grey t-shirt underneath.

It looked familiar. "Is that my shirt?" He stepped closer to her.

"It is." She matched his step forward. "It smells like you. I like that."

The fabric far too large on her smaller frame made the image of her skin pressed against his flash in his mind. He reached out and grabbed the bottom of the fabric, tugging her within inches of his body.

"I'm right here." He let his fingers graze her stomach, barely feeling her sharp intake of breath.

She pressed his hand flat against her ribcage, his thumb resting just under her breast. "I don't suppose I need the shirt anymore then, do you?"

It was the only invitation he needed. His palms slid up and over her breasts, and her nipples sent shockwaves down, heat pooling between her thighs. She clutched at his shirt, needing to feel his bare skin touching hers. He bent down for her to take it off, kissing behind her ear, trailing down her neck. Her breath quickened and he picked her up, her legs instinctively wrapping around him.

A moan escaped as he backed them into the door and rocked against her. Holding nothing back, he coaxed passion from her. Tiny gasps of breath between her lips and his neck.

She ran a hand down his chest, over his stomach, reaching farther downward. Her fingers edged into between his cargo pants and his hip. She wanted to feel him. Unwrapping her legs, she felt the loss of their contact. Fumbling with the button on his pants, she finally got them off and he returned the favor. They stood naked before each other and for an instant, they just stared.

They made it to the bed and time stopped as he held himself just above her, the heat in his eyes raking her. Inch by inch, he lowered himself until their bodies touched again. Heaven, he'd found heaven.

In between kisses, "Luc...oh Lucy," his tongue demanding the surrender she willingly gave. "I-" He didn't finish the sentence when she wrapped her hand around him.

"Please, Garcia, oh please." She guided him, needed to feel him. "Please don't make me wait anymore."

He couldn't have denied her even if he wanted to and he eased in, withdrawing and pressing farther inside with every motion until he buried himself and she cried out his name in a throaty whisper. Moving together, connected so deeply, they remembered home. Reclaiming their stolen life with every crest of shared passion. Rediscovering their love stitched into every timeline.


	10. Chapter Nine

_May 16, 2018_

Lucy lay sleeping, beautiful in the morning light, dull, filtered through the opaque windows. Her brunette hair messy on her shoulders, he ran his fingers through its length, allowing himself this fragile peace. Too soon she'd wake and they'd face off against Emma. Let her remain blissful until history demanded their attention.

She let him believe that she was still asleep, enjoying the absent play of his fingers against her skin. With her eyes closed, she could pretend they were an ordinary couple. They'd get up and he'd make pancakes. Maybe they'd stay in bed past noon. Spend the afternoon wandering through the market. In the evening, they'd open a bottle of wine and eat sitting on the living room floor. Utterly normal.

It hit her that she'd been imagining their stolen life, felt it in her bones. The pictures hazy, but the emotion clear as day. A wave of grief rippled through her and she snuggled into Flynn, comforted by his presence.

He leaned down and kissed just behind her ear. "Lucy?"

"Time to save the world?" she asked, her voice fuzzy. Blinking away the sleep, she stretched in his arms, her body distracting him.

"I mean, we could run away and let it all burn down. I'm not completely against that idea," his desire flaming into existence.

If not for Rufus, she'd probably let the world burn. The thought of Flynn, his gaze searing her as their bodies came together, a heady temptation. "One day, very soon, we're going to spend all day in bed." She nibbled her way up his chest.

"That is no way to get me out of bed," his hands roamed her waist, thumbs tracing circles over her hips, down the line to the crease of her thigh, fingers so close.

A moan escaped her lips. "Do you think we could be quick?"

"Woman," he almost growled at her, pressing her into the mattress, pinning her arms above her. Drinking in the sight of her, hair splayed across the pillow, she caught her breath as he began to move, a languorous rhythm. "We don't have near enough time for all the things I want to do to you right now."

Shifting mere inches, she aligned their bodies, the hard length of him poised at her center. "If you could pick one thing..."

Lucy gazed up at him, passion spilling from her expression. Her body coaxed his, moving to bring the tip of him into her, only to withdraw. It was too much. He slipped inside her and the universe fell into place. Their coupling quiet, at odds with the furious pace their bodies demanded. Since learning about their alternate life, they felt like they were racing time. As if, at any moment, what they'd found might be ripped away again.

~*~*~*~  
 _May 13, 2018_

Emma punched in the coordinates. "So, now that we have the ability to travel into our own timelines we can finally go after Lucy before Agent Christopher and the Time Team got their hooks into her. "

"Yes," Carol leaned forward. "The night of her accident. To this day she doesn't remember who saved her. We rescue her and take her back to Rittenhouse. If we show her the possibilities young, we can control her future. She can be here, by my side where she should be."

"Good, then we get there, we send in Jimmy and Doug to pull Lucy out, get her to the Rittenhouse facility in Stanford."

"Where I have people in place. Once they know my daughter is there, they'll contact me in the past. They'll assume she already knows about the organization since bringing her there indicates that knowledge. Lucy, once she gets hold of a mystery, won't let go until she solves it. I'll have no choice, but to tell her everything."

She'd give Carol this one last chance to bring Lucy into the fold, but if it didn't work, Emma'd shoot her first chance she got. With the new tech, all bets were off. She could go anywhere she needed. Of course, she left that unsaid, didn't want the arguments, the hemming and hawing over killing Lucy. Never mind that Carol swayed Nicholas to her side, she'd win him back. And if not, she'd take care of him and Lucy's mom. She didn't really need them. He was hot and useful for baser needs, but all the bullshit about legacies and bloodlines grated on her.

Rebuilding might take time, but loyalty paid dividends in the end. Look what they'd accomplished with Jessica. She glanced at the blond to her right, fidgeting in her seat. Sending her undercover, had that been a mistake? Maybe she'd underestimated her attachment to Wyatt.

"Jess, you good?" The situation required a gentle touch. Wouldn't take much to push her right back into her husband's arms.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get this over with." If there'd been a window, she would've stared out of it, but as it stood, Jess studied the clean white lines of the Mothership.

Emma reached over. "Hey, seriously, if you need time, we can spare you." Carol and Nicholas shared a dangerous look that irritated her. The redhead liked Jess far more than either of the other two.

"No, I'm in." She straightened her shoulders. "Let's get this show on the road."

There's the fierce woman underneath the deceptive packaging she needed. Pretty, blond, bartender. Easily dismissed. "We'll go somewhere fun after. Promise. Hey, didn't you say you were a big Madonna fan?"

"I did," Jess laughed.

Emma grinned as she punched in the last of the calculations. "How about we hit up her Virgin tour in '85? Give this timeline tech a real run for its money."

Nicholas scoffed. "If it doesn't scramble our brains."

"You know none of the team of scientists finishing Anthony's research would dare risk your life." Carol relaxed in her seat, buckling in for the time jump. "Your vision is far too important."

"Besides, it's not like you're about to let anyone else in on this inaugural mission and you want to be in on San Francisco afterwards when we face off against them." Emma arched an eyebrow he couldn't see. "I'm just glad the scientists finally finished. When this works, we'll have that many more options open to us."

"If I end up drooling on myself, I will be quite unhappy." Nicholas fastened all his belts and acted aggrieved that he'd been so importuned despite insisting on tagging along.

"You won't." She looked around at the assembled group, strapped in, anxious and expectant.

~*~*~*~  
 _May 15, 2018_

They sat around the picnic tables outside, needing to feel the sun. They'd seen so much darkness in the last few days. Five sets of eyes watched her, waiting. Patient. She had to stop tiptoeing around her accident. They needed details.

Lucy took a deep breath, steeling herself. "2003. March 31. I had an anthropology class that ended at nine and we'd spent the class discussing Pontiac's Rebellion during the French and Indian war. It wasn't the atrocities committed that horrified me, though they were awful enough. It was the Paxton Boys. This vigilante group that went in and slaughtered the remaining survivors of the Susquehannock tribe who had nothing to do with the Rebellion. I'll spare you the blood and the burning of villages. Suffice it to say, I was done. I didn't want to live in the past."

Jiya closed her fingers around her's. "We're right here. Don't worry, you aren't alone."

"Thanks, Ji." She felt Flynn's steady presence, leaning on a tree at her back, it gave her the strength to confront the night of the accident. "I loved singing and it made me happy in a way that history just didn't. Amy always encouraged me and I made my decision driving to my mom's that night. No more slaughter of the innocents, I'd sing in smoky bars if I had to, but I was going to live my best life. Amy would approve. Maybe we'd move to San Fran and rent a flat in Haight-Ashbury." She closed her eyes against the night and its assault on her long-buried fear. _A single thought..._ Houdini's words came back to her. _Safe,_ she was safe.

"Where were you?" Jiya brought her back.

"Driving through the Stanford Golf Club. Worked up rehearsing what I'd say to my mother. There's a bridge over the San Francisquito river. I came around the curve and hit the oil slick. Crashed down the right side and into the water. The winter'd been especially bad in the mountains and the river ran deeper than usual." She shuddered. "It was so cold and rushing around me. "

Flynn stepped up behind her, laying his hand on the back of her neck. "Do you remember what time it was?"

She thought back. "9:42. I remember the bright red clock display like it was yesterday."

Jiya crossed to the platform to bring up a topographical map on the computers. "Found the area you indicated. Come check it out."

Lucy joined her and studied the area. "I mean, I can't be sure, but it looks like it."

"Hold on, let me bring up a satellite photo. That might help." She typed out a series of commands. "There we go."

Ice shot through Lucy's body. She'd never gone back to the scene of the accident, but she'd remember that bridge forever. "That's it." Turning, she walked straight back down the stairs.

"Alright," Jiya studied the area on the screen, "Give me a few minutes to really hone this one down. I'm trying to figure out how accurate I can be. I'm getting the feeling there's not a lot of room for error here. We have to be as close to the scene as possible in case we need to retreat."

"You heard her." Agent Christopher stood, dismissing them. "Check the supplies, eat a sandwich, use the bathroom, and change into some sensible shoes. Meet back here in thirty."

~*~*~*~  
 _March 31, 2003_

"Mom. I'm done with school. I'm done with history. I'm done spending my time with dead people. I need to spread my wings-no, not that. Too cliche." What would Adam say? He'd been her best friend since he'd dragged her out to her first open mic. Said a voice like hers needed to be heard. How many days had they spent singing together before finally convincing her? She couldn't wait to call and tell him they were finally gonna get that little apartment in Haight-Ashbury. First, she had to deal with her mother.

"Mom, Adam and I are starting a band and I don't care if you kick me out. I don't care if you disown me. This is what makes me happy." Her mother, of course, would explain that careers had little to do with happiness. People like them had a responsibility. She'd insist Lucy move back home. Obviously, she was still too immature to handle being on her own.

Didn't matter. For once, she was going to follow her heart, not her mother's plan. Christina Aguilera came on the radio and Lucy turned it up, singing along and pressing the gas pedal down a little farther.

 _I am beautiful_  
 _No matter what they say_  
 _Words can't bring me down_

"Nope, I'm taking hold of my future now. No matter what she says. I'll forge my own path. And even if I make a hundred beautiful mistakes, it won't matter cuz it'll be my choice. They're my mistakes to make." She could hear her mother's voice, " _Even if you end up destitute and starving on the streets of some strange town?_ "

The moonlight flickered, hidden and revealed by the passing clouds as she drove through the scrub brush of the golf course. No one ever took this route at night, except the night guard, and he was on a cart. What could he do about it? Lucy enjoyed the speed and the song and the freedom she felt with the chill wind drying her tears in streaks down her cheeks.

Tonight, she said goodbye to Lucy the historian. Tomorrow, the new Lucy embraced whatever the world offered.

The car soared around the bend in the road, and too busy claiming her future, she missed the large black oil slick waiting at the end of the curve. Lucy over adjusted the wheel in the opposite direction and the back tires swerved. Thick waxy leaves of the stunted trees swarmed into her vision and she swerved again trying to get back on the road before it was too late. Dirt spun out behind her and the car hit a rock outcropping launching the vehicle. For what felt like hours she hung suspended until the river raced up at her and the car plummeted into its icy waters.

~*~*~*~  
 _May 16, 2018_

"Adam," Lucy breathed out. "Wait, no. That's not right."

Confusion skittered through Flynn, an icy warning left in its wake. "Adam? Who's Adam?"

Lucy scrunched up her face. "I don't know-I mean, I do. My best friend in college. But that's not right. Amy's always been my best friend. I never knew an Adam." Fear ran through her and she wrapped herself in his arms. Safe. Flynn would always keep her safe "I think it's starting. Whatever it is. We need to go now."

He bent down and claimed her mouth right there in the hallway, uncaring of who saw. Terror raged through him at what lay before them. He let it go and lost himself in her insistent lips, her fingers scraping against the nape of his neck. He loved this woman and he'd do anything to keep her from harm even if it mean following her straight into the fire. So he kissed her like their lives depended on it and she gave him everything in return.

When they parted, too soon, he looked down at her, letting her see his fear and his love both. "Ready?"

She answered by slipping her much smaller hand in his. "Together. We'll face whatever it is together."

He had no doubt Emma'd throw everything she could at them. Since this trip happened before San Francisco, they had to consider that everyone on that mission would be on this one. Would she expect them? He hoped not, surprise might be their only chance. Emma knew they had the knowledge to travel back into their own timelines, but did she know that they also had the ability to do so?

The rejoined the rest of the group gathered around the platform. "It's time. Where are we, Jiya?" Lucy looked to her friend hunched over the computers.

"Just finishing up." Jiya turned to her, her eyes wide. "You can tell it's starting, can't you?"

Lucy nodded. "The past is getting mixed up. Like it's changing, but I'm walking the line between both. I can't forget Amy. I just can't."

Agent Christopher reached out for her free hand. "You won't."

Wyatt glanced over the motley crew. "Everybody good to go? Any last thoughts?"

"Just that we should be prepared for the possibility that Emma knows we're coming." Flynn gave a small squeeze of Lucy's hand and shared a look with Wyatt. "And that we should expect the full Rittenhouse retinue."

Wyatt picked up the thread. "Yes, agreed. Lucy, you should prepare yourself to face your mother."

Her mouth set a thin line, determined. "Denise warned me that might happen. I'll be okay. I can't stop thinking her one big regret was not indoctrinating me earlier. Makes it easier. I'd never join Rittenhouse. Plus, Jess'll probably be there too."

"You'll all have your demons to face." Agent Christopher gathered all their focus, they had no time for emotional distractions. "You know what you're doing. There's no reason to put this off any longer."

Jiya climbed down the stairs. "She's right. I've had two visions in the last ten minutes and Lucy's memory is going sideways. We need to go. Now. Coordinates are set. I should be able to get us within twenty feet of the accident."

Denise pulled them all into one big, ridiculous, hug. "You heard the woman. Get your butts in the Lifeboat and go save Rufus. And all of you come back in one piece. Remember, I promised you ice cream."

She watched them go with trepidation. No matter how many times she sent them on these missions, she never worried any less.

Mason stopped Jiya before she got too far away. "Please, bring him home to us. I'm putting all my trust in you."

"I won't let you down," wrapping her arms around him, she kissed his cheek, "I promise."

* * *

 _The Jiya one retrieved the packets of information. Haste imperative. A schism on the horizon, undefined. The destination required absolute accuracy. Numerous time strands. No room for error. Lines Intersect. A shattering. Destruction._

Jiya kept her breathing even. Kept Rufus in her mind. Imagined him next to her, offering encouragement, asking her _What Would the Doctor Do?_ A challenge and a support. Keep it loose, be prepared to improvise, and breathe. Always remember to breathe.

"Everybody buckled in?" Jiya scanned the group, mumbled, nodded assents met her. "Alright then, let's do this."

Lucy leaned up and touched her shoulder. "Save Rufus, save the world."

Mason and Denise stood sentinel as the Lifeboat revved up, preparing for the jump. The weight in the pit of her stomach terrified her, but she'd learned to set that aside decades ago.

Mason slid an arm over her shoulder. "I'll get the whiskey, you get the yarn?"


	11. Chapter Ten

Lucy expected her life to flash before her eyes, it didn't. The red LED display glowed 9:42 as time stalled and she waited for the impact. What did they say about crashing into water? Her brain faltered. Scared. Roll the windows down a little bit to equalize the pressure and control the flow. She scrambled for the button a second too late and hit the river, her head smashing off the steering wheel, confusing her thoughts. Her body slammed against the seatbelt, bruising her torso, making it hard to breathe. Her sole comfort, the red light of the clock, blinked out as the electrical system failed. Icy water poured in through the half open window and she panicked.

 _Think, Lucy, THINK!_

Her ankles submerged as she fought her seatbelt. Up to her knees, her fingers cramping in the water rushing down. Shivers wracked her body as she worked to free herself. Water at her waist. She prayed. At her ribcage. Screamed. At her shoulders. Sobbed as the end of her life neared. Thought of everything she'd never do. Never graduate or play her first show. Never meet the love of her life. Never have children and see in their faces the blending of lives. The water up to her neck, a brilliant white light shining in welcome. The end arrived without a gaggle of children and grandchildren to send her to her rest. No, at the very end, she was alone.

And in the last seconds before she lost consciousness, she saw him, would've known his face anywhere. The man she'd never learn to love.

* * *

 _Timestream Alpha aligned. Horizon parallel. The Jiya one adjusts for flight into Timestream Beta. The Lifeboat permitted her, refining the calculations. Flight path stable. Approaching time barrier. Impenetrable. Forward thrusters on full. Jolt right. A crack opens.  
_

* * *

The universe demanded and Jiya adapted. "You guys are buckled in tight, yeah?"

Lucy's stomach dropped. Checked her belts. Wyatt appeared unfazed, but his fingers tightened around his straps.

Flynn...was Flynn. "We crashing? I'd prefer not to if possible. Doesn't sound like a calamity I'm keen to experience."

"Keen? You're not keen? Who are you, Mr. Darcy? We're about to explode into atoms and you're-" Jiya released the timeline assimilation packets, punching in the numerical code designed to mask the Lifeboat's spatial identification. "Not keen? Lucy control that man."

They joked through the terror. The time machine jolted to the right, jostling its passengers. "You think I've got any control over him?"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "You're kidding, right?" The white of his bones evident in his death grip on his seatbelt.

"He's got a point, Lucy, you're pretty much the only one who can control me." Leaning forward to grab her hand, instead Flynn slammed backwards, the turbulents ramping up.

Jiya's entire body tensed. "It's about to get rough. Hold onto your hats."

As the braced themselves, a streak of silver shot through the cabin of the Lifeboat.

* * *

Emma loved flying the Mothership. Her smooth, sleek lines. The purity of her design, her calm in flight, the ease in piloting her. Even now, jumping into their personal past, the Mothership soared. The Lifeboat always bucked and kicked like an unbroken foal. The Mothership stormed across the plains, a hundred Mustang hooves beating at the earth.

A red warning light came to life to the right of the display. Shocked, Emma floundered through the equations that bombarded the screen, attempting to keep up with the calculations.

Carol gasped as her shoulder jammed into the chair and she grabbed for Nicholas. Jess didn't so much freak out as internally combust, clutching at her seatbelt, her face white, words stolen by terror. Jimmy and Doug acted unconcerned, but anyone with half a brain would pray to whatever higher power they believed in right about now.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Nicholas sputtered as he crushed the fingers of Carol's hand.

"No, of course not," Emma declared with more confidence than the situation warranted.

* * *

 _The Mothership leads the way, leaving her time signature behind for the Lifeboat to follow. Bread crumbs. Guiding the smaller craft through time, folding it into the wake. Absorb the waves and buffer flight. No guarantee of safety. Gamma rays accelerate, shifting parallels. Scraping against the dampening field. Pilots unable to adapt to the onslaught of incoming information. The Mothership inserts the missing numericals.  
_

* * *

They crashed through the barrier. Bolts of silver shattered off in every direction, shoving all of them back. Flying in the LIfeboat left you shaken at the best of times. These were not the best of times. Jiya barely entered the last of the computations before collapsing on the console. Wyatt's head rang, his thoughts plodding through a thick fog, but he got to her, seeing the signs that she'd fallen into a vision. Flynn's wound from San Francisco reopened, but not enough to stop him from getting to Lucy the moment they landed.

Lucy's chest constricted. Ice filled her veins as if she was being pulled back into the car, river rushing over her. She gulped for air and fumbled at her restraints. Trapped.

Already free, Flynn reached over and unhooked her. "Hey, it's okay. We're here."

"I'm drowning. Again. It's happening again." She clutched at his leather jacket, burying her face in his turtleneck.

Wyatt stumbled backwards when Jiya regained consciousness. "We need to do this. Now." She opened the Lifeboat door and got to her feet. "I don't know how long we have."

"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked as he pulled out his gun, ready for whatever faced them beyond the door.

"Emma is definitely here. All of the different timelines colliding caused a crack in the fabric of reality." Lucy straightened, Wyatt and Flynn took up post on either side of the opening. "We are at the dead center of a spider web of competing futures."

Light flooded in and Wyatt ducked his head out to see what awaited them. "The Mothership is here." Lightning rolled through the clouds in the distance.

Flynn looked out just in time to see Lucy's car crash into the water. He was out the door and scrabbling down the incline before he could think. Wyatt, Lucy, and Jiya called after him, but protecting Lucy was instinct. His head whipped from side to side. Someone saved her, pulled her out, but no help appeared imminent. Across the way, on the higher edge of the river, Emma and then Jess fell out of the Mothership, followed by Carol and Nicholas. He couldn't risk them getting to Past Lucy first. If she died now, he'd lose her forever. He couldn't let that happen.

Surging forward, he ran into the water that dragged at him as he waded further in. He had to get to her. A bullet whizzed by his head, but he paid it no mind. The entire front half of the car already underwater, braced only by a single rock, its metal body swaying in the current. He watched in horror as the power of the water worked the vehicle free and it pitched and slipped completely into the dark depths.

Flynn dove in after her.

Lucy screamed as she watched him disappear. Jiya pulled her down behind a huge boulder when Emma and her two goons starting firing at them having lost Flynn as a target. Silver pulsed across her vision and catapulted her into the vision of drowning. This time, however, Flynn's face resolved into focus, frantic, but determined. Arm sliding in through the window, unlocking and tugging open the door. The car shifted, silt spraying up, clouding his vision. His fingers clumsy as he wrestled with her seatbelt. Panic set in, fearing he'd lose her and he nearly cried when the clasp finally released. He wrapped his injured arm around her and pushed off the bottom, swimming for the surface, his lungs burning.

Lucy shook free of the vision as Flynn broke the surface, gasping for air. He'd need cover. Without thinking, she whipped out her gun and started shooting. Crossed over to the same outcropping that launched her vehicle, using it as a shield as Flynn clawed at the sand, dragging the two of them from the water. Wyatt came up behind her and Jiya moved down to help Flynn with young Lucy. Thunder rolled through the night and the wind picked up.

Emma barked commands. "Get over there. Don't let them leave." The redhead sprinted through the brush behind Jimmy and Doug. They made it to the bridge and hunched down behind the concrete walls, making an effective barricade against flying bullets.

Wyatt ducked back down. "Stop, don't waste your ammo." He watched as Flynn coughed and sputtered, never once letting go of young Lucy. "We need to get her to help and for that we need to get up there." He pointed at the bridge above them. "Flynn, you carry her up to the road and the three of us will engage Emma and the others. You alright?"

"Don't worry about me." Flynn prepared to scoop up her small body, studying her face. How young and untroubled she looked.

Wyatt gave him a curt nod. "Once up there, run like hell and get her to safety. Jiya, Lucy, get to the edge of the barricade. When Flynn gets far enough away, we'll have a clear shot back to the Lifeboat."

"Come back to me." His Lucy begged him. She wanted to touch him, to feel his heart beneath her palm, but didn't dare, fearing the consequences. It had always been Flynn, saving her life, his face that haunted her dreams for years.

"Always." Flynn held her eyes for another breath before nodding back at Wyatt.

"On three," he whispered, holding up three fingers and beginning the countdown.

They moved as one, drawing out Emma, Jess, and the goons. The dirt beneath their feet made gaining traction difficult, but they persevered. Wyatt deliberately avoided shooting Jess, a thought to digest later, and grazed one of the guards. Flynn made it to the top of the rise and saw two dim headlights in the distance headed right for them. Whoever approached them could be Rittenhouse, but he didn't see what choice remained. The deserted road through the golf course offered no houses, no passing cars, no sign of help.

He was about to sprint towards the oncoming vehicle when Emma fired a warning shot over his right shoulder.

"Stop, Flynn, don't take another step." He turned to see Emma with her gun trained on him. Wyatt, Lucy, and Jiya flanked him, while Jess and the two men did the same behind Emma. Seven guns at the ready. "Hand her over."

Lightning cracked yellow above them, the scene bathed in a sickly sheen. Flynn looked to Emma's right, at the far end of the bridge and saw Carol and Nicholas, hiding away from the real danger. No surprise there. He called back to her, "Carol, you okay with this? Handing your only daughter, the only one you remember, over to Emma?"

Lucy hadn't noticed her mother in the background, far more concerned with Flynn. And shooting Emma. "Mom?"

The older woman walked out of the shadows, followed by Nicholas close on her heels. "You have to understand. If I can get you here, now, before Agent Christopher gets her hands on you, we can change the world. We will change the world. You'll see."

Lucy shook her gun at the mother, emotion getting the best of her. "You're going to steal my life. Again. Just like she did," she gestured at Emma.

"Little good it did me." The redhead kept her gun on Flynn, but stared right at Lucy. "Cuz here you are. Still plaguing my life."

"What did I ever do to you?" Lucy flung up her hands and began pacing. On her left, Flynn tensed, glancing at Jiya.

"It's always been perfect Lucy Preston. I worked for your father for years, doing his dirty work. Cleaning up the messes. I went undercover at Mason Industries. Waited in the wilderness for ten years. Me! I did all that. Not you, not the little princess everyone talked about like the second coming."

Flynn needed his gun, things were about to get ugly and he couldn't protect both Lucys without one. In his peripheral vision, the headlights he'd seen crossing the field stopped behind them. He took his chance.

He turned to Jiya, "Take her. Get her to the golf cart." An old man doddered out of the vehicle as he quickly passed her over.

"I told you to stop, we're taking her or I'll kill the lot of you." She glared at Flynn and then Lucy.

"Go Jiya," he grabbed his gun. "Don't stop for anything, we've got your back."

The three of them blocked Jiya as she ran to the old man. Seconds passed as Emma tried to get a clear shot, failing. The only thing that kept them from opening fire was the fact that none of them would survive. Jiya laid young Lucy in the back of the cart, urging the man to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.

Emma heaved a dramatic sigh. "Guess we'll have to go with plan B. I should have killed the two of you long before now anyway. I thought tearing you apart would be enough, but seems I was wrong."

"We found each other again. And we'll keep finding each other. You'll never separate us no matter how many timelines you alter." Flynn reached for Lucy, pulling her close to him, shielding her with his body, as much as she would allow.

\Jess didn't like the way this situation was heading, the lightning bathing the sky in orange now, more intense, wind ripping at her hair. Emma didn't get Lucy in the past and it appeared likely they stood on the edge of a bloodbath. She had no desire to die on a backcountry road in 2003.

She stepped up to the redhead, her steps measured, slow. "Emma, this isn't anything we bargained for. Was supposed to be quick rescue and then off to San Francisco. Remember?"

"Do I remember?" she near screamed, only just controlling herself. She bit out through gritted teeth, "I am the one who put all this in motion. You all have no idea how long I've been playing this game." She whipped her head to stare at Jessica. "Since the first time I killed you."

She staggered backwards, "You killed me? What? How? I thought we were friends."

Emma scoffed, "Yes, I killed you. And now we're friends. Those two thoughts aren't mutually exclusive. What's the problem? You don't even remember that life."

Jess realized she'd made a huge mistake. "What's the problem? You killed me!"

The plan had gone seriously awry and Nicholas preferred being alive. "Emma, that's enough of this foolishness." He stepped forward, oozing fake charm. "What do you want? I'll make it happen."

"You want to know what I want?" She turned back to face the Time Team, guns drawn. "I want to kill all of them, starting with Lucy. And I want to make Flynn watch, just so he knows he failed. Again. Then kill anyone who gets in my way. I want to go back to the beginning of this screwed up country and choose who lives and dies."

Nicholas laid a hand on her shoulder. "If that's what you want, we can do that. Let's get back and start the planning."

She shrugged off his hand, aimed and killed him where he stood. "I don't remember saying anything about we."

Carol gasped. "What have you done?"

"What needed to be done." Emma pointed her weapon at Carol. "Choose."

The older woman backed away without an argument. Lucy watched with disgusted horror. "You're just gonna let her play God through history?"

"If it saves our family? Absolutely." Carol said with certainty.

Emma smile froze the older woman in place. "Fine. Don't say I don't have a heart." She fixed a glare on Lucy. "One last chance. Join your mother and Team Rittenhouse and I'll spare Flynn's life."

The immediate no died on her lips. Her vision narrowed until she saw nothing but his face as he worked to rescue her from the river. His face as he killed the Pilgrim before he could harm Lucy. His broken eyes as he cradled her in San Francisco after she lost everything. He'd saved her so many times. It was her turn to sacrifice.

She raised both hands, palms out, gun ringed around her index finger. "Okay. Just promise me you won't hurt him." She took one step forward. Both Wyatt and Flynn called out to her.

Angry red lighting scored the sky. "Guys, hate to tell you this, but we need to move." Jiya readied herself to run.

Lucy stepped forward, farther from Flynn, ignoring the faltering of the universe. "I'll come with you. Let them go."

Wyatt reached out for her, "No, Lucy, don't do this."

"Lucy.-" Flynn's voice broke, suspecting all was not at it seemed. She'd never go willingly with Emma and Carol. "Please…"

She risked a glance back at him. "I love you, Garcia Flynn. I'm sorry I never told you before now." Thunder clapped overheard, ratcheting up the pressure. "Now go and don't look back."

"This isn't you, Lucy." Flynn pleaded.

"It's my turn." She faced away from him, unable to handle the tears cresting his eyes. Another step forward, closer to the redhead. "This is for Rufus."

Adjusting the gun in her hand, she watched as Emma realized her plan. In the time it took Emma to re-aim her gun, Lucy fired. In the last seconds of her life, Emma returned fire, her bullet heading straight at Lucy.

Flynn's heart ripped from his chest and he couldn't let her die. Wouldn't. A world without Lucy untenable. Wyatt shot both of the guards as Flynn launched himself at Lucy. He knocked her out of the way as the bullet pierced his left side, lodging itself in his lung.

Lucy watched as the scene unfolded before her in slow motion. "No," she screamed as Flynn fell limp in her arms. She crumpled, cradling his body in her lap, her hands smoothing back his hair, his eyes blinking up at her, trying to focus on her face. Scratches of colored lightning shattered the sky and the clouds released a downpour. "No, you stupid, beautiful man. You can't die. You just can't. I just realized I love you. We're supposed to have a lifetime together. Remember?"

Jess and Carol moved closer to Lucy and Wyatt and Jiya greeted them with weapons. "You two, get out of here!" Wyatt bellowed at the two women, the cause of so much pain. "Go. Now. Before I shoot both of you myself. You have no business here."

"Wyatt…" Jess stepped closer.

"Just go," Wyatt replied, weary. "Before the universe implodes." Carol grabbed Jess' hand and dragged her away from the heartbreaking scene.

Lucy wept as Flynn tried to touch her face. She wrapped her smaller hand around his and brought it to her cheek. His voice came out a whisper, "Absolutely worth it. Every second."

"But we were supposed to have so much more time." Tears streamed down her face, mixing with the rain.

"I will find you again." He gazed up at her, willing her to believe.

Wracking sobs overwhelmed her. "We have a time machine. We will fix this."

He squeezed her hand with the last of his strength. "No, Lucia." He coughed, blood at his lips. "I love you, forever. But let this be my redemption."

She bent her lips to his, kissing him one last time. "I love you, Garcia Flynn."

A flash of angry red lightning struck five feet from the Lifeboat, the machine launching into start-up. Wyatt and Jiya shared a frantic glance.

"Flynn? Flynn!" She held his face waiting for his next breath.

Jiya bent down to Lucy, wrapping her arms around her friend. "We've gotta go now. I don't know why or how the Lifeboat started up, but it can't be good news."

"We can't just leave him here." She jerked away, crushing Flynn's lifeless body to her chest.

Wyatt smoothed her hair from her cheeks. "I'm sorry, there's no time. If we don't leave now, we may be trapped here."

Jiya took her hands, unwinding them from Flynn. "I understand, trust me." She pulled her friend up and led her to the Lifeboat.

Lucy never looked away from Flynn, his name falling from her lips, a shattered prayer followed by a promise. "I will come back for you."

Wyatt strapped her in and all she could think was how alone he was on that bridge in the raging storm.

* * *

 _Walls collapsing. The Blonde fumbles with the controls. Unprepared for complex series of commands needed. Time running down, the Mothership takes control. Begins automatic countdown, remote start-up for the Lifeboat. Transferring the data and coordinates for the return flight. Proximity alarm sounds as another Lifeboat attempts to breach the barrier. Must vacate space before fracturing. The unwriting of history._


	12. Chapter Eleven

_March 31, 2003_

The upgraded Lifeboat replaced the original. Jiya put the machine into stand-by and looked to Lucy, her eyes straight forward, heartbreak etched into her features even five years on. Flynn's death ripped a hole in her that remained unhealed.

"You don't have to go out there. I can go with Wyatt if you want." Jiya worried for her friend.

Lucy attempted a smile. "No, I need to do this. I never wanted to leave him, I should be the one to bring him home."

Jiya checked the radar and opened the door as Wyatt and Lucy unbuckled. "The storm appears to have passed. We're the only ones invading the timeline now."

Wyatt peaked his head out, a perfectly cloudless night and a sky full of stars greeted him. "We're good here. Ready, Lucy?"

She nodded and stepped out the door going straight to where she'd left Flynn five years before. Gazing down at the love of her life, his face serene, that awful night assailed her memories and she gasped for air.

Wyatt stayed behind Lucy, allowing her this grief. Once upon a time he'd thought himself in love with her. Now, he loved her fiercely, but stood as a friend rather than a lover. It had only been the three of them for so long now, there'd been little choice but to fuse into an unbreakable family or fall apart.

What would happen when they got back from this mission? A lump of guilt sat heavy in his gut for all the deaths he couldn't prevent. He hoped that by stopping Jess they changed the future, but they wouldn't know until they returned.

"I promised I'd come back for you." Lucy bent her forehead to his and tears rolled down her cheeks onto Flynn's. "I'm so sorry. If I'd have known, I would've done everything differently."

She unclasped the locket from her neck, removed his ring, and slipped it back onto his finger. "I'm taking you home." She leaned down to kiss him this final goodbye, "I love you, Garcia."

~*~*~*~  
 _May 16, 2018_

Lucy forced herself to put one foot in front of the other. Down the stairs. Into the heart of the bunker. Numb. Weightless. Floating through space untethered. The lines of the world blurred, the light haloed as she walked through shards of rainbow. She refused to fall.

Rufus came bounding down from the platform. "What the heck, guys? I go out for Chocodiles and you leave me behind?"

Wyatt and Lucy froze in place, Jiya flew across the distance and flung herself into his arms. "You're alive. Oh god, you're alive." Pulling his face down, she kissed him, his lips gentle, questioning, hers insistent, grateful. All the fear, the pain, the loss, hope, relief, grief, terror, all of it poured out of her.

"Of course, I'm alive," he said when Jiya let him up for air, keeping him in a bear hug. Wyatt and Lucy joined in, crushing him in the middle of the three of them. "Hey, guys, seriously. This is getting a bit creepy now."

"I can't believe we actually saved you," Jiya breathed out. "How'd you get back here? I thought for sure we'd have to go and get you from San Francisco."

"What do you mean? San Francisco? I've been here the whole time. After Harriet Tubman, I went out for snacks and when I came back, you guys left on a mission. With Flynn instead of me, might I add. Where is he anyway? Did you guys leave him behind again?"

Lucy stilled, her patched together heart ripping wide open. Gathering herself, she raised her tear-filled eyes to Rufus. "I can't tell you how happy I am that you're alive. I really am, but I just can't, I'm sorry." She kissed him on the cheek and walked away before she fell apart in front of them.

"Lucy…" Jiya called after her. She looked between Lucy and Rufus, torn.

Wyatt laid a hand on her shoulder. "Let her go. Give her some space."

Agent Christopher looked to him. "Flynn?" the question evident in the timbre of her voice. She knew the answer. Wyatt nodded. "Oh, Lucy. " She watched as the girl walked straight into Flynn's room, the door closing gentle behind her. She seemed so tiny and young, shoulders hunched in defeat. "What happened?"

Wyatt led them to the kitchen, sinking into the chair. "Everything went sideways. When we got there the universe started to fracture. Emma was with Jess, Carol, Nicholas, and some goons. They wanted Lucy in the past so they could indoctrinate her early. Lucy, as you can imagine, disagreed. Instead, she took out Emma, once and for all, and risked her life to do it. Flynn sacrificed himself for her." He swallowed, hard. "We had to leave him behind."

Denise rose and crossed to the cabinets, "Then first things first." She pulled out a bottle of Jameson, grabbing five glasses. Poured one for each of them, raising a toast. "In the end, he died a hero."

"That he did," Mason raised his glass.

"On the right side of history," Jiya agreed, glancing at Flynn's room. "He saved her twice. Once from the river and once at the end."

"To Flynn," Wyatt tilted his glass towards the others.

"To Flynn," their voices, as one, melancholy, their victory tarnished by loss.

Lucy closed the door, gentle despite the inferno raging inside her. Studied her fingers rather than face the empty room. Fingers that longed to entwine with his. One more time. If she could just have three more minutes. One more minute. One more second with him. Tears fell as she pressed her forehead to her knuckles, digging in as if she could banish the memories.

Flynn's face as she confessed her love for him, the joy followed by naked fear. He figured out her plan. Begging her. But she'd made her choice. Her life for Rufus. For the team. For Flynn. She wanted to scream. To burn down the world. Wanted to shoot Emma again. She'd abandoned him; left him lying on the side of the road. How could she allow herself to be torn away from him?

 _Let the universe shatter, what did she care?_

She whirled away from the door and came face to face with his private space. The bed still mussed from their morning together. His black turtleneck still draped over the end of the bed where she'd tossed it their last night together.

 _Oh god, he was really gone._

Lucy collapsed. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she tried to hold in the gaping chasm that threatened to swallow her whole. It didn't help. Nothing would. She crawled to the bed, taking off her bloody shirt, and pulled his sweater over her shivering body as she burrowed beneath the scent of Flynn surrounded her and she pressed her face to his pillow, tears wetting the fabric, smothering her sobs.

Lost in loss, Lucy didn't hear the door open or close again. Only when the bed dipped did she realize she wasn't alone.

Denise smoothed her damp hair from her face. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I wish I could do anything to ease your pain." She toed off her shoes and laid down in front of the younger woman, offering comfort with her simple presence..

"It's all my fault, Denise," Lucy sputtered out. "If not for me, Flynn would still be alive. I'm such a fool. I thought I'd protect them all and now my heart is just this huge ragged hole and I don't know how to go on in this world without him. I never even realized how much I needed him until right before he was gone and then I lost him and I-"

Denise wrapped her in her arms. "Shhh, Lucy, take a breath. This was not your fault. Flynn chose to sacrifice himself to save you. It's okay to be sad, to grieve. And you will. But he died a hero. Don't take that from him. He loved you that much."

Lucy pulled back, eyes red-rimmed and swollen. "I don't know how to go forward after this."

"You just do. Stay in bed as long as you need, but one day, you'll get up again. It'll be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life. But you'll go on, because that's what he'd want you to do."

Her breathing slowed, "Thank you, Denise."

"Anytime, you know. We're all here for you." She held up her pinky. "Pinky swear."

Lucy wrapped her pinky around Denise's and offered her a small smile. "Pinky swear."

The older woman placed a quick kiss on her forehead. "Do you want me to stay with you?"

"No," she sucked in a harsh breath, feeling grief creep back in. "I think I'd like to be alone."

"I understand." Denise hugged her one last time. "I brought you some tea, it's on the desk. Try and get some sleep, okay?"

Lucy nodded as her surrogate mother walked to the door. She stopped as she went for the handle and turned back, still worried for the tiny woman tucked beneath blankets.

"He wouldn't have survived your death. None of us would have." She swiped at a tear before leaving Lucy to her sorrow.

After the door closed again, Lucy tilted her head, considering the tea. If she knew Denise, it was laced. In the end, the tea grew cold as she cried long into the night. She fell into a restless sleep when the early morning light crept in through the opaque windows, her dreams haunted by drowning.

* * *

Jiya met her as Denise closed the door. "How is she?"

"As well as can be expected." She glanced back wondering if she should've stayed. No, let Lucy grieve in peace. "She's broken right now, but she's strong. We'll help her piece herself back together."

"The universe just keeps piling it on her, doesn't it?" Jiya knew the pain Lucy suffered and she felt helpless.

Denise frowned. "Is there anyway to change this?"

"Without the possible irreparable damage to the timeline?" She shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I'll work on it nonetheless. With Rufus back, if there's a chance, we'll find it."

"Thank you, Jiya. Speaking of Rufus," she looked back towards the kitchen area. "I'm interested to hear the whole story of bringing him back from the dead. I feel like I missed out on an adventure."

She led Denise back to the boys. "Where's your version of this story begin?"

The last few days blurred together. "When we discovered Jess' connection to Rittenhouse. She snuck out while everybody slept. From our perspective, we sent you after Jess and Emma after we confronted her about the photos we found. Sent you back to the beginning, I think."

They filled in the empty seats, everyone together again. "Seems like there's a lot to catch you up on."

Mason refilled their glasses, shaking his head in confusion. "So, lemme see if I've got the basics down. In your timeline, Jess betrayed all of us, stealing the Lifeboat, and abducting Jiya."

"And that led to us going to San Francisco to rescue her." Rufus continued as Jiya sat down next to him.

"Even though I told you not to come for me." She leveled him with a mock glare.

He leaned over and kissed her. "I'm never not going to come for you."

"But then you died like I warned you would happen if you disregarded my vision." Jiya shuddered, remembering Rufus dying in her arms.

Wyatt took charge of the conversation. "Our future selves showed up and set us on the mission to take down Emma once and for all. It was our chance to save Rufus, but to do that we had to travel back into our own timelines."

Denise slugged down her shot. "There's not enough whiskey in the world for this," Poured herself another. "It's like Samuel Beckett trying to explain the Who's on First joke."

"You don't know the half of it." Wyatt filled them in on the rest of the story. Forbidden colors. The decades long mission to take down the team. Emma, Carol, Jess. By the end, the bottle was empty and the whole group fell silent.

Denise took it all in. Apparently, she and Mason almost died in addition to Rufus. She set it aside for now, there'd be time to sort it all out later. For now, she needed to clear her head.

~*~*~*~  
 _May 17, 2018_

Lucy stared down at the tall grass, blowing in the slight breeze, the recent rain scenting the air with a metallic tang. Agent Christopher crossed the field, eyes widening as she took in the scene. Tucked into a small alcove of trees, bathed in the pre-dawn light, sat a second Lifeboat. An older version of the Lucy she'd left sleeping in the bunker sat in the circular opening.

Denise stopped at the bases, climbing to sit on the lower rung. "So it's all true." Lucy tilted her head in question. "Oh, sorry, new timeline, I'm just catching up."

"Did you doubt them?"

"No, not really." She chuckled. "But it's rather hard to believe, you have to understand."

"I lived through a different version of it and most days it doesn't seem real. So, yes, I understand." A sad smile ghosted over her features. "Before we left, I wanted to ask a favor of you."

"Anything. You know that." She twisted to face Lucy and the weariness of the woman surprised her. "You've never had it easy, even for a little bit."

Her head drooped. "No, that wasn't in the cards for me. But hopefully for her. That's why we're still here." Leaning on her knees, she scrubbed at her face. "We brought Flynn home. I didn't want her to bear the weight of burying him, but five years of guilt for leaving him behind-" she broke off, containing the tears. Lucy reached in her pocket and handed her a folded piece of paper. The address. "Just...when she's ready, take her there, please. You'll have to arrange the legalities of it, but it shouldn't be too hard."

"I'll take care of it. Don't worry." Denise paused and studied the exhausted woman. "What about you?"

"Me?" Lucy shrugged. "I don't even know what kind of future I'm going back to. The little we've done here, we saved you and Mason-hopefully it's enough."

She beamed, happy to give her some good news. "And Rufus. He's alive and well. Three lives you saved, three more people to fight for a better future. I promise you, I'll never stop fighting."

She stood, dusting herself off. "We should get going now. Can't hide from the future forever."

"No, I don't suppose we can." Agent Christopher stepped down. "Take care of yourself. No matter what you find when you get back there. You succeeded here. Even if the worst awaits you, remember this victory."

Lucy ducked her head into the Lifeboat then turned back. "In case I don't get to say it, thank you. For everything. You've always been like a mom to me, especially when Carol was less than motherly. And I really hope when we get home I get to know you all over again."

"The feeling is absolutely mutual." Denise retreated to a safe distance and watched the future disappear, wondering what they'd find when they returned to their time. As she walked back towards the bunker, the wind picked up. _Displaced, almost as if..._ she stopped short and whirled around as the Mothership appeared in the field behind her. Grabbing her sidearm, she kept her eye on the opening door of the time machine. No need to call for Wyatt, the alarm would alert him.

"I'm alone and unarmed." Jess stuck both her hands up as she stepped out. "I left Carol at Rittenhouse, I'm only here for Wyatt."

"Slowly down the stairs, keep your hands up." Denise edged closer. "Why should I trust you?"

"Because I brought you the Mothership." Agent Christopher patted her down. Wyatt burst out of the bunker, startled to see Jess standing there. "I came to get my husband back."

"What makes you think I want you back?" Wyatt's caustic retort hid his hope.

She reached for him, "Picnic table." Denise indicated she should sit her ass down.

Two guns pointed at her. "I know you love me, Wyatt. Deep down. You've loved me since the first time you saw me in 9th grade Geometry class."

"Doesn't mean anything." He held his composure even though he wanted to believe her. Wanted the woman he fell in love with in the afternoon September sunlight, before the world intruded.

"I'm carrying our child. This is our chance." Jess sagged forward onto her knees. "I didn't know any other life, Wyatt."

He dropped his gun to his side. "Denise, can you give us a moment?"

"Yeah, I'll go check out our new time machine. Yell if you need any help." She disappeared into the interior to ensure it really was empty as well as give them a bit of privacy.

"I know I betrayed you. I'm sorry. If I could take it back, I would." Jess fidgeted, unsure of what to do with her hands. "They saved my brother, I had no idea how evil they were until Emma killed Nicholas."

"But it was okay to steal Lucy's life?" Wyatt leveled her with a glare. "She's been nothing but kind to you. And this is how you repaid that kindness? How you repaid Jiya's friendship? How could you do it? And why do you think I'd let you back in my life after all that?"

The blonde choked back a sob. "I understand." She stood and began to walk towards the road. "Just let me go, I'll take a cab."

Wyatt grabbed her hand as she passed him. "That's not a never. It's not a no, it's also not a yes. It's a not now. Now is just too hard. I'm far too angry and Lucy's grieving Flynn. I couldn't possibly move forward with you, it wouldn't be right. But maybe sometime...in the future."

Jess' smile lit up her face. "Okay then, maybe sometime."

"Gimme a second, I'll grab the keys to the truck, you can drive it back to your place. I'll pick it up later." He paused, hesitating. "If this is another betrayal, I will have Agent Christopher kill you."

At the sound of her name, Denise popped her head out of the Mothership. "It'll be my pleasure."

~*~*~*~  
 _March 23, 2023_

The Lifeboat opened and hissed into the almost darkness. Emergency lights shown in the otherwise abandoned bunker. Lucy, Wyatt, and Jiya stepped out, unnerved. A second Lifeboat sat alone to the right of theirs.

"What happened here?" Wyatt pulled out his weapon and the other two followed suit. "Fan out. We'll check it out together."

They searched the entire space, finding nothing but cobwebs. Nothing seemed amiss, as if the team left for a mission and just never came back. Clean dishes sat on the rack, fridge and garbage emptied.

"Somebody closed up shop. Maybe we succeeded in taking down Rittenhouse once and for all?" Jiya opted for optimism.

Wyatt holstered his weapon. "Power up the computers. See what you can find."

The three of them stared at the screen as they ran through the start-up. When it finished, the display showed only a simple box with two words.

 _Save Rufus..._

Jiya typed in the rest of the sentence. _Save the world._ A single word appeared on the screen. _Journal._ Lucy knew what it meant. Went straight for Flynn's room, no one needed to tell her she would have claimed his space as her own. Under the mattress she found a jump drive and the brown leather journal with her initials pressed into the cover. When she picked it up a letter slipped from its pages. She tucked the drive into her pocket and opened the letter.

* * *

 _If you're reading this, this is our Hail Mary pass. Jiya spoke often about how the three of you might be out of sync with time, existing in a sort of bubble universe so that when you return, we might stand a chance to change it all._

 _Jess brought us the Mothership after the events on that backcountry road and for a while, we lived in relative peace. We let our guard down. Carol came for the ship when Wyatt, Jiya, Rufus, and I took a trip to Elizabethan England. A celebration of sorts, making it through the first year. We found Jess, Mason, and Agent Christopher when we returned. By then, it was too late._

 _We fought against her as long as we could. Wyatt died during the Battle of Little Bighorn. Jiya at Kent State. Rufus was shot trying to stop the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm the only one left and I'm about to surrender to my mother in the hopes that I can work against her from the inside. Saving bits of history as I can. I don't expect to last long._

 _You are our last chance. It's time to go where it all started. Flynn's the key. He's always been the key._

 _A beginning in the end. Time comes full circle._

* * *

Lucy scanned the journal and knew what her past self planned. She explained it to Wyatt and Jiya. They all sat around one of the kitchen tables as they had so many times before. The silent bunker pressed in from all sides.

"You remember how to pilot her?" Lucy nodded and Jiya hung her head thinking of all they'd lost. "You know this'll negate the entire timeline, right?"

"Yes." Lucy said with regret but without hesitation.

Jiya looked up from the scarred tabletop. "And you'll likely be unable to get back. There's no guarantee this bunker will be ours in the future. Or that we'll even be working together."

Wyatt couldn't look at her, "You'll be the only one to remember."

"You two could come with me." Even as she said it, Lucy knew this was one mission she had to take alone.

"No, we need to stay in case you fail." He stiffened his resolve. "Keep fighting the good fight and all that jazz."

"I know." Her heart hurt knowing that if she succeeded they might never meet. They fell quiet again, the weight of their failure looming over them.

Wyatt broke the silence. "Well if this is the last chance I have to say it, it's been an honor to protect both of you."

"You've both become my family and if there's any kind of design to this world, we will meet again." Lucy grabbed both their hands. "I'll always remember you."

Jiya leaned over and pulled her into a fierce hug. "You were the sister I never knew I wanted." Wyatt joined in and they stood, a circle of friends holding onto the past before it slipped away. Jiya released her and padded up to the computers. "I'll set up your jump."

She and Wyatt faced each other in front of the Lifeboat. He reached up brushing a thumb across her cheek. "I'll always love you."

"I love you too, I couldn't have asked for a better friend. Losing Flynn...I never would have survived without you and Jiya." Wrapping her fingers around his, she lifted their hands and pressed them to her chest. "I'm really sorry about Jess."

He blinked back tears. "She did the right thing in the end. You were right about her, like you were about Flynn. Even if I never see her again, I can live happy with that knowledge-" a low chuckle interrupted. "Err, well...you know what I mean."

She smiled, happy that they would part on a laugh. "I know what you mean."

Jiya rejoined them. "We're ready to go you whenever you are."

"Alright then." She gave them each a quick nod and climbed the stairs. "Until we meet again."

The last Lucy saw of Wyatt and Jiya they stood at attention giving her a very Flynnesque mock salute.


	13. Chapter Twelve

_Only one chapter left after this, y'all. I can't believe how the end just crept up on me. Just wanted to say, thank you for reading and reviewing. You're all beautiful and lovely and all things good._

 _Mad Lovely,  
SNP_

*Pura means neat in Portuguese.

* * *

 _Dear Garcia,_

 _Two weeks ago, I buried you. I wasn't there. Two years ago, you told me about our destiny. I didn't believe you. Five years from now, I pass our destiny to you. I don't know how many times I've done this before. Maybe too many to count. But every time-whether I know it concretely or not, I know it-every time, you die._

 _And every time I end up sobbing on the floor of the bunker._

 _None of this makes sense to you, I know that. I'm wishing on a falling star. That's all that's left to me. How many times have I lost you? How many more times do I have to lose you?_

 _I never told you how I was afraid of plants, did I? Well I am. Ridiculous, I know, but there it is. There's this one time, when we were enemies, that you stranded us in 1754. Tromping through the woods with all these prehistorically large leaves. Beautiful, but literally the worst thing I could imagine._

 _We wasted so much time, you and I, being enemies._

~*~*~*~  
 _June 5, 2018_

I count the squares of the ceiling. Your ceiling. One hundred forty-two. Thirty-two windows. Vodka in the coffee cup. I function, but not much more. No one suspects, but Denise. They shy from me, averting their eyes. I am someone to avoid. How do I give up on you?

They've stopped asking me how I am. Thank god. I am so sick of that question. I'm the asshole who got the love of my life killed. How do you think I am? Every day I wake up and forget, for the briefest of most blissful moments, that you are gone. But every morning, I remember you're dead. I don't know how much longer I can do it.

Knocking. I rouse myself.

"Lucy, It's Denise," she calls through the door. "I'm coming in." Her eyes adjust to the dim light of the room. It's stuffy, claustrophobic.

"Hey. What's up?" I ask, my voice bright, brittle. I don't know how to fake it. I try harder. "Need something?"

She pulls a pile of clothes from the chair, my eyes track the motion, my favorite's in that pile, and takes it back into her lap, sitting down. Her hands fidget. I pretend not to eye the vodka on the desk. She hands it to me anyway. I tuck it into myself, this bottle is not for drinking. She makes a decision, I can see it in her eyes, one that'll require me to put on pants.

"Get dressed."

I pull on a pair of old jeans and slip a hoodie over his grey t-shirt. My thoughts are fuzzy. "Where are we going?" Leaving the bunker seems exhausting, but I take the first step. I stumble a little getting out of bed, I don't have much energy these days.

"You need fresh air."

I should leave the bottle, but I can't release it. "Bring it." She must see the panic on my face.

"It's just a bottle." I set it on his desk. I tell myself there's no reason to bring it. "I don't know why…" I can't confess.

She reaches for me, hands on my shoulders. "You shared it with Flynn?"

I nod. "Our first night as friends."

She hands it back to me. "Bring it." Pulls me into her arms. "It's time to say goodbye."

~*~*~*~  
 _March 23, 2023_

 _Lucy enters the date and the Lifeboat refines the coordinates. This mission planned from the beginning. The catalyst. Lucy Preston and Garcia Flynn. Recorded and stored every version of their lives. Camouflaged from current iteration. The path forward unhindered by previous choice. The Lifeboat finds him. Once again. One last time. The final timeline._

~*~*~*~  
 _September 12, 2014_

The bar looks exactly as she thought it would. Dark wood, stained and burned from years of cigarettes. The room smoky, a dull roar from the after work crowd. Even in the dim light she finds Flynn easily. After five years, his absence a constant hole in her life, she is frozen, unable to approach. He turns, skimming over her. Strangers, she reminds herself. They are strangers as far as he knows. She studies his haggard face, the loss he's suffered scratched into its surface.

Once she sits down next to him, she'll set the future in motion. If she walks out, they'll never meet. She could leave him to his sorrow. Let the world save itself. If she sits down, his death becomes a near certainty. How can she condemn him when she remembers his last breath? She has to believe this time she can change his destiny. Their destiny. Even if it means they never meet again. His life worth his absence in hers.

Weaving her way through the room, she steps up to the empty seat next to him. "Is this seat taken?"

He stares at the bar. "Have at it." Sipping his whiskey, all but ignoring her.

She slides onto the hard wood chair, wanting to see his face again. The bartender stops in front of her. "Vodka. Pura." Gathers her willpower, Flynn lost in his own vengeful thoughts. Deep breath, her heart pounds. "Hi, Flynn."

He stiffens, shoves a hand into his jacket. "And you are?"

"Lucy Preston."

Flynn swivels in his chair. "And what can I do for you today, Lucy Preston?" he asks, his gaze boring into her; she squirms under his dissection.

All his anger evident in the line of his body, forbidding. Still, she's missed him so much, she drinks in the sight of him, hungry for one last look. Throwing back her vodka, she motions to the bartender to bring another.

His words to her in front of the burning Hindenburg come back to her. "You need to understand who and what you're dealing with."

He leans so close she could kiss him, run her fingers over his stubble. His voice low, each word a punctuated warning, "How do you know me?"

"I know everything about you. I know about Lorena and Iris. I know Lorena went to check on Iris and that's when they were both murdered. And I know you barely escaped with your life." The image of his hand streaking through his wife's blood flashes in her mind still as vivid as the day she witnessed it all those years ago. "I know who's behind it, they're called Rittenhouse. I know you're on the verge of giving up or stepping onto a path of vengeance."

Suspicious, he turns back to his whiskey. His body folds in on itself, the weight of his family's death heavy. "How do you know all this?"

A sad laughs slips out. "I'm your future." The journal weighs heavy in her pocket.

xxxxxxx

 _You told me once that the only thing you asked of your life was to go to your grave having earned my forgiveness. Looking back on our lives together, I see the mistakes we both made. You were always on the right side of history, if only I could've seen that. I think I caught glimpses of the good man beneath the vengeance right from the beginning. Standing in front of the Hindenburg as it burned, I never feared you. Oh, I was scared, sure, but I never thought my life was in danger._

 _When you first read this journal, you saw it as a tool, but the more you read it the more you felt like you knew me. It terrifies me that if you decide to change the future, we might never meet. It's a risk I'm willing to take. But I can't help but want you to know me, the me who forgave you for everything standing in the bunker when you offered me your trust and I accepted it. The day you joined the team._

~*~*~*~  
 _June 5, 2018_

I watch the trees whir by as we head toward whatever destination Denise has in mind. Her words fill the cab of the old truck as we bounce down the old two lane road. I don't remember what she speaks about, my mind is a numb, dull void. All I can think of is the time Flynn and I wasted fighting against each other.

The sunny day at odds with the grief that hangs over my whole life. I don't know how to move forward. How do I go back to the missions? How do I fight for a history I don't really care about it anymore? How do I walk away knowing my mother is still out there?

"What happened to my father?" I ask, not because I care, but because I need to know he's not a danger to anyone else I love.

She's startled that I've spoken, but answers without hesitation. "Black site." The car slows as she turns into an old cemetary, passing headstones in various stages of decay.

"He's secure?" I worry he will come and steal what's left of my heart. "Because my mom…"

She doesn't need me to finish my question, she knows. "Unless she comes with an army willing and able to blow up a mountain, there's no way she can get to him."

The truck rolls to a stop in the back of the graveyard, the wide open sky dwarfling our insignificant existence. "We leave such a small footprint when we go. A piece of stone set against a backdrop of magnificence."

"There's nothing small about the lives we leave behind." She turns to me and takes the key out of the ignition. "We're here."

"Where is here?" I think she must have family buried in these rolling hills. A symbolic representation of the rest Flynn will never find.

"Follow me."

I exit the cab and wind through the graves, pine trees dotting the landscape. Everything green and blue and as endless as the days without him.

She leads me to a simple stone and I understand. "Future you visited me one last time and asked me to bring you here when you were ready." Her hand slips into mine. "But I don't think we're ever ready to say goodbye."

My eyes blur with tears knowing that Flynn's finally with his family again.

~*~*~*~  
 _September 12, 2014_

His glass slams down on the bar, the amber liquid splashing out. "Prove it."

Lucy thinks of what she knows about him, what will convince him she's telling the truth. "You eat cereal late at night because you can't sleep if your stomach's empty."

"Why are you here?" He's taken aback, but relaxes and Lucy can tell she's earned a small sliver of trust. His eyes plead with her for some kind of hope. He's desperate.

"I'm here because we were supposed to fight together to bring down Rittenhouse." It's the moment of truth and she wants nothing more than to save his life. Saving the world hardly matters anymore. Saving this man is everything. "But I want to offer you another way."

His eyebrows raise in confusion. "What other way?"

She removes the jump drive from her pocket and gives it to him. "This is all the information you need to bring the people who murdered your family to justice." Pulling the journal from her pocket, she places it on the bar between them. "And this is the story of our life together." Her eyes skirt over him, trying to gauge his reaction. "The first time around, I gave you the journal as a way to avenge your family and it led to your death. This time I give you the chance to walk away. A choice of justice or death."

A bark of laughter answers her. "I'm right here," he scoffs, "definitely not dead."

She lays a hand on his, surprising him, "Garcia, please, listen." She swallows, her words thick against her throat. "It's my fault, all of it. And I can't live with it." She's craved even the smallest touch so much, tears come to her eyes. "And neither can the world."

"You know you sound like a madwoman, right?" His tone is doubtful, but he flips his hand so their palms meet. "But there's something between us."

She smiles, knowing their time is limited. "We fall in love. Over and over again." Disbelief wars with the connection she knows he feels to her. "You have a choice. You can follow this journal and set into motion our fight against Rittenhouse and you will die for me. A good death, you'd consider it, though I'd disagree."

"Or…" he traces his fingers over hers, absently as if the movement was coded into his DNA.

"Or you could walk away." _And we might never meet,_ she thought to herself. "Go live a normal life in some small town in Ohio."

"My family…"

"What would Lorena want you to do? You don't have to answer that, but think about it. The future is still unwritten."

"Then what would happen to us? To our future together? I haven't lived it, but I see what you telling me all this is costing you. You wear it like an armor, I can see it."

Of course he saw right through her. "I don't know, honestly. But it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make if it saves you." Withdrawing her hand, she's reluctant to let him go. "Read the journal, it explains better than I ever could." Pushes the leather bound book to him. "But I'm begging you, let this life on those pages be nothing more than a story with a tragic ending. A life someone else lived."

"The life you lived." He reaches up, tracing his thumb against her cheek, his eyes share her grief.

She gives into the impulse to lean forward and kiss him. Just a chaste brushing of lips, but it's enough. It has to be.

"Goodbye, Garcia." She memorizes his face, sitting in the dim light of the bar. Never wants to forget him, forget what he did for all of them. If she was the only one who remembered, she'd carry their time together with her wherever this life took her.

"Goodbye, Lucy." In five minutes conversation, a missing piece of his life came home to fit inside him and he knew he'd look for it until he found it again.

~*~*~*~  
 _June 5, 2018_

"It took five years, but you brought him home." She squeezes my hand. "I'll give you some time," she says and leaves me to find some peace.

I crumple to the ground, I can't fight the tears that pour down my face. I uncap the vodka, drink, the liquid burning as I swallow. "I don't know how to-" Hiccuping sobs. "I can't-" my words stutter out. "How am I supposed-" A strangled cry escapes. "I'm carrying around this ridiculous bottle of vodka like it's some freaking magic lamp that'll bring you back." I take another long pull off the bottle. Not much left of it now. "You left me." I lean forward, my head against the cool stone. My words soft, stolen away by the wind. "You left me and I don't know what to do. I finally saw our life together. I needed years of us living and loving and bickering through the decades." I pull out my locket, his ring a halo around it. Clutching it, my last tether to a future that never existed. Giving in, body and soul, to this harsh reality.

I feel Denise's arms come around me, but I am so lost. Her voice a soothing lullaby of comfort, I let it all go. All the crushing sadness, the mornings we'd never spend in bed, the fights we'd never have. I know I'll carry the guilt of his sacrifice with me. But, in the end, sobbing on my knees at the grave of the man I love and the family he loved before me, in the end I can be thankful for the all the days he's given me.

"Lucy…" I look up and she wipes the tears from my cheeks. "Far be it for me to suggest changing history, but it occurs to me that you still have the journal."

I scrub at my eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Well, like what you did with your grandfather bringing down Rittenhouse the first time. Mason and I have talked a lot about fixed points in time. It's the idea that in any given timeline there are people who are destined to die and events destined to happen no matter what changes we try and make. Think of Kate Drummond from the Hindenburg, JFK, Flynn's family." She gestures to the stone. "It seems that we do have the ability to manipulate the future using time as a weapon itself. In this timeline, you still haven't written the journal yet, so rather than whatever you believe you're supposed to write, write a different story."

I take one last swig from the bottle and pour the rest out for Flynn, sharing the bottle one last time. "A different story…"

"Maybe it'll be enough to change the outcome. Maybe one day you'll come back into the bunker and he'll be waiting for you." She's trying to offer me hope.

"He once told me that I didn't mention him much." A plan starts to form.

"So change that." Standing, she brushes off her knees and offers me a hand. "Tell him the story of how you fell in love."

xxxxxxx

 _Paul Simon says that losing love is like a window in your heart, everybody sees you're blown apart. He's absolutely right. I've become a walking shadow. But despite the empty aching loss I feel writing these words, I still hope that in one of the timelines you and I found our happy ending. Oh the stories we'd have to tell our children. About Houdini and Lindbergh. About Benedict Arnold and Abraham Lincoln. About Grace Humiston and Alice Paul and Harriet Tubman. Our time in this one far too short._

 _Read these pages and know you were the love of my every lifetime. Know that I felt a connection between us from the very beginning no matter how much I denied it. I hope you choose to walk away, but know this love will haunt me throughout whatever world takes the place of this one. I have to believe we'll find each other again._

 _I love you, Garcia Flynn._

 _Forever Yours,  
Lucy_


	14. Epilogue

So, friends, we now come to the end of the story. Thank you all for sticking with me on this ride. For you reviews and reactions. And for being all around lovely people. You're the bestest.

As per usual, thanks for reading. Enjoy!

Mad Lovely,  
SNP

* * *

 _Epilogue:  
The Fantastical Story of Lucy Preston_

 _October 3, 2016_

Walking away from Flynn in Sao Paulo, she found solace in history, visiting places she'd only dreamt of before the Lifeboat came into her life. The Gettysburg address. The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy. V-J Day. Her hair grew long while she wandered through Caesar's Rome and Elizabeth's England. Drank coffee with T.S. Eliot and tea with Jane Austen. She ran as far as she could before she faced the end of her story and the answers she feared.

Finally, she sought the last piece of her heart. If Flynn believed her, the world outside the Lifeboat would be different. Better. The display showed an average suburban backyard. A swing hung from an old oak, shaded by the overhang of branches. If she timed it right, there'd be only one person in the house. Lucy grabbed her old cell phone and sent a text, waiting.

The back door pushed open and her sister stepped out, her light brown hair catching the sunlight.

 _Showtime._ The last remaining barrier between them opened. Lucy jumped out and nearly cried in joy, "Hi Amy."

"Hey, Lucy. What's up?" her question trailed off as she took in the Lifeboat and her sister. "Wait. Whoa! You're you, but you're not you. And that's-" Her face scrunched up in adorable confusion that soon resolved itself. "How long have you been a time traveler?"

"I knew it'd take you all of two seconds to figure it out." Lucy kept her distance waiting for the time travel is real freakout that never came.

"Well, the giant metal hamster ball behind you might've given it away." Amy peered around her trying to get a look inside.

Lucy dragged her sister into a bear hug. "It's a long story, just go with it."

Her little sister pulled back and really studied her face. "You got old."

Lucy laughed harder than she had in years, leading Amy to the swing. The place where they told their deepest, darkest secrets to each other.

Amy sat, tucking her legs up underneath her. "So, Future Lucy, what're you doing here?"

"I shouldn't be surprised you're taking this so well, I guess." Amy mouthed _Nope!_ and waved her hand indicating Lucy should get over it and get to explaining. "I need a favor."

"Filed under, obviously." She folded her arms over her chest. "I'm waiting."

Lucy turned to her little sister, "I need you to talk me into leaving Stanford."

Amused laughter burst out of her. "You? Leave Stanford? Why on earth would you do that?"

"You know how unhappy I am there." Lucy remembered any number of times Amy'd tried to get her to choose a different path.

"I do. I've also told you that. Repeatedly." Amy frowned at her. "Why would this time be any different?"

She considered lying so as not to reveal the future, but this was her baby sister, she'd know. "In a few hours, I'm going to find out I'm not going to get tenure. If it's ever gonna happen, it's now."

Shock registered and dashed away. Doubt replaced it. "Do you really think you'll leave Mom's legacy behind?"

She sighed, heart heavy. "It's time I start living my own life, don't you think?"

"Long past due."

Amy laid her head in her lap and Lucy brushed her fingers through the strands of her hair. The breeze rustling the leaves above them, they rocked back and forth, enjoying the peace. The feeling so at odds with Lucy's own past, a gentle reminder she didn't belong here.

"You're sad." As always, the younger woman heard what she wasn't saying.

"Yes. I am." She turned away, unable to reveal the depth of her loss.

Sitting up, her sister brought her knees to her chest. "It's the real reason you're here."

"Yes," a torrent of words rushed to her lips, but years of silence made it hard to let them go.

Amy tugged at the sleeve of her t-shirt. "Tell me about him."

She broke. All their stories poured out of her. No reason to keep those secrets now, Lucy was the sole survivor of another forgotten life. So she told her sister about the time team and their fight through history. To save their families. To save the world.

They moved into the yard and lay on their backs as the sunset painted the sky in fire. Her sister listened as she regaled her with tales of dancing with Agent Christopher. Binge-watching _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ with Jiya. Of Wyatt and his fierce protection of the team. Saving Rufus, but losing everyone anyway. Their failures tumbled out of her with the regrets and mistakes, threaded together through the timelines with stories of the fallen heroes she'd left behind.

Woven through it all was Flynn. His crinkly eyed smile when she made him laugh. His dry sarcasm, a shield for his patchwork heart. His love of Lorena and Iris. Kissing him for the first time. Realizing she loved him. Holding him in her arms as he died. Passing him the journal despite knowing it could lead to his death yet again.

Amy accepted it all without reservation. "What'll you do now?"

She sat up, knowing their time together was running short. "I honestly don't know."

~*~*~*~  
 _January 21, 2017_

Lucy wrapped her maroon coat around her, grabbing a cream colored scarf and matching beret. It was welcome weekend for new arrivals to Oberlin and the college planned a bonfire in the snow covered hills. She'd met a few of her fellow history professors so far, but this gave her the opportunity to broaden that small circle. She'd left Stanford far behind, ready for the blank slate of living out from under the shadow of her mother.

"Enough is enough. Quit stalling." Amy rose from the couch and headed to the door. "Let's go get your future started."

"I should've insisted you stay in California." She glared at her sister who responded by sticking out her tongue. "What are you, five?"

"What are you, sixty-five?" They both laughed.

She tugged at her beret one last time. "No, but seriously. You didn't need to come all this way just to get me settled in."

Her sister looped their arms, dragging her out of the small faculty apartment. "Like that was ever going to happen. Of course, I'd come with you. What kind of sister would I be otherwise?"

"I really do appreciate it." They crossed the campus, arm in arm, snow crunching beneath their feet. They watched as their breath puffed out and disappeared.

A tall lanky man with thinning white hair greeted them as they joined the party. "Miss Preston, glad you could make it."

"Good to see you again. This is my sister, Amy. Amy, this is the Dean of the history department, Dr. Sullivan."

He gave a quick nod. "Very nice to meet you, young lady." He turned back to Lucy. "How are you liking Oberlin so far? Must be very different from Stanford."

Chuckling, she answered, "Colder, for sure." He laughed with her. "Honestly, that's what I'm looking for. I'm just happy a position opened up right when I began my search."

"We're happy to have you. You come highly recommended. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." He glanced around at the clusters of faculty and students. "Well, I don't want to monopolize your time. Go, get yourself a cocktail and enjoy the festivities. It was nice to meet you, Amy. I hope you enjoy your time here."

"Thanks, Dr. Sullivan." The older man left and Amy giggled as she led them into the fray. "Well, he was appropriately adorable, a real life Arthur Weasley. This place is perfect for you."

Butterflies swirled in her stomach, nervous, but with Amy by her side, socializing came a bit easier. Her sister always had been the more gregarious of the two. She had them weaving through strangers she turned into friends, smiling at everyone and filling in the silences between bursts of conversation. All in all, everybody had that mid-western easiness about them, she liked them already.

While her sister grabbed them a couple beers, she felt drawn by the fire. It's dancing, flickering shades of yellow twisting into orange blurring into columns of red. A sense of deja vu swept over her, the ghost of another life brushing against the nape of her neck. She shook off the sensation, but it clung to her. She glanced around looking for Amy, finding her across the way chatting up a journalism professor they'd met earlier.

She lost herself again in the flames, awash in the feeling her life was about to change. Her rational mind told her this made sense. For the first time, she stood on her own two feet. Moving across the country to take a job in a state where she knew no one, only the beginning. Still, the feeling lingered. A missing piece she couldn't place.

A dark-haired man startled her out of her reverie when he stopped short a few feet away, gazing at her in confused wonder. "It's you."

She studied his face, a familiarity about it she couldn't place. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Yes. No." He huffed out a exasperated breath, running his hands through his hair. "It's complicated."

"What do you mean, it's complicated?" She took a step back, not scared, but unsure. She felt like they'd met before, but where?

He straightened and extended his hand. "Forgive me, I'm Garcia Flynn." He took her hand in his. It fit perfectly. "I'm a professor in the Criminal Justice department."

"Lucy Preston." Out of the corner of her eye she saw Amy walking over to join them. She had scant seconds to pull herself together. "History."

Amy noticed their still joined hands and Lucy quickly let go. Her sister offered her a cheeky grin. "Are you going to introduce me to your new friend, big sis?"

"Yes, of course, sorry," she said, flustered. "Amy, this is Garcia Flynn." The younger woman went white as a sheet. "Are you okay?" Lucy focused on her sister who openly stared at Professor Flynn.

Amy ignored her. "Do you have the journal?"

"Journal. What journal?" Lucy asked, perplexed.

He nodded, a hand dipped into the pocket of his leather jacket. "Yes. How do you-"

"Will someone please explain what the hell is going on?" Lucy didn't like being in the dark, and something about him tugged at her, the answer just out of reach.

"Give it to her." Amy took her hand when Flynn pulled out a worn leather bound journal. Her sister looked her square in the face. "Lucy, I'm going to need you to keep an open mind right now."

He offered her the small book and she took it from him. Her thumb rubbed over the cover and she saw the initials LP pressed into its surface. She stared up at him, panicking. "Who's journal is this?"

He didn't break eye contact. "Yours."

Flipping through the pages, her distinct mix of capital and cursive handwriting jumped out at her. "But I never wrote this."

"You did," Amy said, certain.

"How is this possible?" Sky and fire swirled around her and if not for her sister's hold on her arm, the ground might have fallen away.

"Lucy," Flynn captured her attention, "breathe."

She fell into his fathomless green eyes, calming her racing pulse. "I don't understand." She wanted to lean into him, wanted the safety of his arms.

Amy began to pull her away, "Come on, sis, you're going to want a drink."

"Will I see you again?" Even if they'd only just met, Lucy wasn't ready to leave him.

Her sister assured her, "I doubt very much the universe would have it otherwise," but Lucy wanted his response.

"May I see your phone?" She handed it over and his fingers flew over the keyboard. "Go, read the journal, unravel the mystery. If you still want to see me afterwards, you have my number."

Lucy followed after her sister, but the image of Garcia Flynn standing in front of the towering flames haunted her until she began turning the pages of the journal late that night.

~*~*~*~  
 _October 3, 2016_

Lucy climbed into the Lifeboat. Exhausted after her goodbyes to Amy, she had no plan. No idea where to go next. She was a woman out of time.

"Alright, LB, it's just you and me. I've got nowhere to go and no one waiting for my return."

She ran her fingers down the console, wondering if the machine could sense her, read her mind. In the past, they always landed in perfect time to save the day. Never too far from where they needed to be and always hidden from easy view.

"Can you hear me? Do you know where I'm supposed to go now?"

Lucy'd done what she could for her alternate self, and tired of running, she needed rest. She had no idea what the future held for her, whether she'd disappear in a blink or live a long life full of normalcy. The Lifeboat rumbled through start-up and the time traveling historian buckled up. Whatever her final destination, she'd let the machine fade into obscurity, vine covered and rusting through the decades. Or maybe it would fade into oblivion when the ripples of the universe caught up with them.

Only one way to find out.

"You ready?"

The Lifeboat answered by jumping into the unknown.

~*~*~*~  
 _November 5, 2017_

"Flynn, have you seen my boots?" Lucy called into the living room as she crouched down feeling under the bed.

He rustled around the living room. "Which ones? The brown ones with the laces or the fuzzy black ones?"

"Brown ones." She stood up, figuring she must've shoved them in her closet.

She heard him open the hall door. "Found them." She padded out and grabbed them from him. He raised an eyebrow, "Do I want to ask why they were in the linen closet?"

Shrugging, she popped up to kiss him. "Cuz that's where I was standing when I took them off?"

He drew in her lower lip, enjoying the gasp that escaped when he deepened her light kiss. They may not remember their other life, but kissing felt like coming home. He backed her into the wall and their bodies began to move together, their passion flaring into existence.

A knock interrupted as Lucy wrapped her leg around him, "Ignore it," she whispered as she kissed her way down his neck.

The knock came again, more insistent this time. They parted slowly, reluctant to let the outside world intrude, eager to pursue the desire simmering just below the surface. But when the knock came a third time, he crossed to the door and opened it.

"Garcia Flynn and Lucy Preston, I'm Agent Wyatt Logan with Homeland Security."

Flynn started to close the door again, "Whatever you're selling…"

The agent put his hand up, stopping the motion and showing them his badge. "Agent Logan. Homeland Security. I'm going to need the two of you to come with me."

"What's this about?" Lucy asked.

"We need your help."

~*~*~*~  
Timeless:  
The Private Journal of  
Miss Juliet Shakesman

 _April 15, 1865_

This is the fantastical story of Lucy Preston, a woman who once soared through time. Today, she walks the dusty streets of DC, the skirts of a stolen dress swishing around her ankles. Clomping horse hooves and the bustle of the Capitol surround her as she takes it all in. This world far from the one she knows. Modern conveniences hold no interest for her, she has chosen the slower path.

Why, you might ask? Maybe one day she will relinquish her tale, but today she seeks one man.

She finds him in the lobby of his hotel. The events of the twenty-four hours previous a shroud around him.

"Miss Shakesman," Robert Todd Lincoln reaches for her hand, taking it in his own. "I did not think to see you again. This makes three times our paths have crossed."

"Can't be coincidence," she curtsies as he kisses her hand. "Do you believe in fate?"

"Seeing as I'm standing in front of a beautiful woman when I am in dire need of company, I would have to say yes. Yes, I do believe in fate." He offers her his arm. "Would you care to join me for supper, Miss Shakesman?"

"Yes, I very much would, Mr. Lincoln."


End file.
